Rewind
by JessicaThePerson03
Summary: Steven glanced at the far wall, what was the cookie cat freezer doing there? And why did the Big Donut look like it had been months before...Wasn't he in that old spaceship catching Peridot with the others? And why does everybody have their forms from a long time ago...It hit him, He's gone back to the first day. The first day his gem glowed. [Rating may go up in the future]
1. Chapter 1

_**Well, I had this idea pop into my mind and couldn't forget about it for the life of me, so, I figured I might as well make a story out of it. Especially since my other story seems to have hit another writers block, and it's almost over, this one can keep me busy.**_

 _ **Disclaimer: I don't own Steven Universe or any of it's characters, all rights go to Rebecca sugar and Cartoon Network**_

 _ **With that said! Onto the story!**_

* * *

Summary: _Steven glanced at the far wall, what was the cookie cat freezer doing there? And why did the Big Donut look like it had been months before...Wasn't he wasn't he in that old spaceship catching Peridot with the others? And why does everybody have on their outfits from a long time ago...It hit him, He's gone back to the first day. The first day his gem glowed._

* * *

"Steven?" Sadie asked. Steven stared at the Cookie Cat freezer, tuning out Lars and Sadie. ' _Wait, wheres Peridot..? And the others? I was at the old spaceship...And we got her foot..right? But then what?'_ Sadie shook his shoulder. He snapped back into reality, blushing a bit.

"O-oh sorry, I zoned out..." He lied, well it was technically the truth at least. ' _Why am I here?'_ He asked himself. He noticed the freezer was empty.

"I thought you'd be more upset about Cookie Cats gone." Sadie said. She looked at Steven curiously. He glanced back at her.

"If he's so worried about those Cookie Cats why doesn't he make some with his _magic belly button!_ " Lars joked harshly, like usual, he was a jerk.

"Yeah, but didn't you already tell me that Sadie?" He asked, ignoring Lars's comment, instead remembering his break down when she'd announced they were no longer making them. Sadie shook her head.

"They only told us today, there's no way I could've told you." Sadie said, Steven pondered this for a moment before letting it sink in. He had too get back to the temple to confirm this.

"Hey Sadie, could I take the freezer?" He pointed to the freezer grinning, he wasn't gonna pass getting the freezer, Sadie shrugged, letting him have it.

* * *

Steven shut the door to the Big Donut, waving goodbye to Lars and Sadie, he walked down the path to the Temple, humming a bit as he strapped the Cookie Cat freezer to his back, it smelled like ice cream, he had a theory, (Or maybe he was spending too much time with Ronaldo) That he had gone back in time too the time the cookie cats stopped being sold. He looked at the sky, it was roughly 4:00 in the afternoon he guessed.

He opened the door to the Temple. "Hey guys-" He was interrupted by a large Centipeedle crashing on top of him, he screamed, acid pouring down his shirt from the monster, attempting to shove it off him, his hand was brushed by a purple whip, gem stones littered the whip all the way too its core, being held by Amethyst.

"Sup, Steven." She said, giving him a two fingered wave before yanking the Centipeedle off the young boy. She tossed it across the room, it poofed across the far wall into a puff of smoke, Steven's eyes laid on Pearl, who was elegantly fighting off gem monsters getting too the warp pad. Steven glanced at her clothing, it was just as he had thought, it was from months ago, he decided to go along with it, he didn't want to change much of what he did and somehow make things worse than they already in the future, but maybe..he could save his family too, and make things better.

Pearl hit the last Centipeedle with her spear, allowing it too get into the hands of Garnet, who hit it on the back of her knee, and sent it flying to some nearby monsters who dared to approach the fusion, one managed to land on her Afro, and she snapped it in two, allowing it to poof into a puff of smoke. Stevens eyes laid upon the infestation of the Centipeedles.

"Wait I can-" Steven was cut off, as Pearl approached him.

"I'm sorry Steven we'll get these things out of your room." She said, holding one between her arms as it struggled. "We think they were trying to get into the temple." Pearl said.

Steven remembered his Centipeedle friend, "Aw, Common you don't have to get rid of them! Do you?" He asked wearily. "T-There pretty cool!" He said with stars in his eyes, he loved the gems on their backs, even if they were only decoration, the real gem he knew was on the mother, but didn't say anything in fear of everyone becoming suspicious. His train of thought ended as the Centipeedle in Pearl's arms spat out a thick ball of acid straight into the floor.

Steven heard a poof from near the temple and Amethyst spoke up, "Um you guys! These things don't have gems!" She cried, digging her finger into her nose.

"That means there must be a mother somewhere nearby." Garnet said stoically.

"We should find it before anyone gets hurt." Pearl said, glancing to Garnet worriedly. Steven spoke up with stars in his eyes.

"Can I come?! Can I please! I promise I'll- I'll-" Steven was cut off by Pearl.

"Steven, until you learn to control your powers we'l take care of protecting humanity-" Pearl paused, snapping the monsters neck and dropping it to the floor in a puff of smoke, "Okay?" She asked, smiling motherly.

Steven tried too remember what he'd said the last time and went with, "Aw, Okay- hey!" He cried seeing a Centipeedle digging in the fridge, "Hey get out of there! Shoo Shoo!" He said, looking at the spilled milk, and sighing, "they got into everything...Not cool!" then he glanced at the Cookie Cats with stars in his eyes. "Cookie Cats!" He cried, remembering the sweet ice cream treats he's loved, and there was a stockpile of them! This time around he had to savor them, "No way.." He said, so it was true, he really had gone back to the first day. The stars in his eyes grew when he took out a Cookie Cat. "Where did you even find these!? I thought they stopped making them!" He remembered saying. Pearl shut the freezer and shrugged.

"Well~ We heard that too...And since their your favorite.." Pearl was cut off by Amethyst who jumped onto the counter top.

"We went out a stole a bunch!" She said, Steven let out a laugh. Pearl groaned.

" _I_ went back and paid for them." She said, putting her hands on her hip.

"The whole thing was my idea." Garnet said.

"It was everyone's idea." Amethyst insisted.

"All that matters is Steven is happy." Pearl cut in.

"OHHH~" Steven began the song, startling Pearl with the change of tone.

"He's a frozen treat with an all new taste cause he came to this planet from outer space! A refugee from an interstitial war! And now he's at your local grocery store! Cookie Cat! He's a pack for your tummy! Cookie cat! He's super duper yummy! Cookie cat he left his family behind! Cookie caaaat! Now available at Gurgens rt. 109.!" HE sang, as everyone laughed.

"I can't believe you did this! I'm gonna save these forever! Right after I eat this one." He said, taking it out of the wrapper and crumbling it in his hand as he bit into the creamy goodness. "Mm..So good! I like to eat the ears first." He said as his gem faintly glowed. Panic rose up in his throat, he didn't know what to say. Should he fake being surprised and go along whit it? Yes. That's the only thing he could do right now.

"Uh Steven..." Amethyst began. She glanced at the faint glow, he glanced back at her, before looking down at his gem.

"A-Ah my gem!" He said, faking his panic.

"Quick try to summon your weapon!" Amethyst cried.

"Ah it's fading how do I make it come back!?" He asked.

"Stay calm Steven breathe! Don't force it!" Pearl said, Steven put on a panicked face as ice cream dripped down his shirt.

"Yeah and try not to poop yourself either." Amethyst remarked. She stifled a giggle at her joke.

"Please don't." Garnet said, her face unnaturally calm and stotic for this situation. The gem stopped glowing and he sighed, dropping down to the floor. Most of it was because he had too go through training all over again.

"Aw I was so close that time.." He shoved the cookie cat back into the wrapper. He sighed a bit before asking, "Can one of you...explain how to summon a weapon.." He said.

"Ooh~ I'll go first~!" Pearl said, bringing him along to the warp pad.

* * *

He followed Pearl to her favorite tree, the petals danced in the air with the wind, the wind smelled of roses and fresh dew. Steven grabbed at the petal, knowing what was coming.

"Pay attention to these petals Steven. The petals dance seems improvised but it's really being calculated in real time based on the physical properties of this planet, with hard work, and dedication you can master the properties of your gem and preform your own dance!" Pearl's gem glowed and she summoned her spear, "Like so." Steven was obviously still lost, just as much as he was the first time, the picked up a pile of petals and threw them into the air.

* * *

Amethyst was over by the Big Donut when Steven came by, he saw her and she began her part of the lesson.

"Did Pearl tell you the petal thing." Amethyst asked, Steven noticed this, he noticed that maybe Pearl taught that to Amethyst when she was learning as well, he nodded. "Listen Steven all that practice stuff is no fun, when I need to summon my weapon it just happens." She said with a mouth full of doughnut, and pulled her whip out of her gem with ease, slashing at the garbage dumpster. "See." Amethyst said, Steven sighed. Time for Garnets lesson, at least they were short.

"Again?!" He heard Lars cry as he threw down the trash at the damaged dumpster.

* * *

Garnet was on top of the hill, Steven hiked up, sweat drenched his face from the long climb...man those doughnuts really do a number on you.

"So I'm supposed to try and not try at all at the same time?" He asked. Garnet nodded.

"Yes." She said simply staring at the boys face which was full of confusion, fake confusion really, he already knew how to summon his weapon.

"Or...You can link your mind with all existing matter channeling the collected power of the universe through your gem which results in-" She summoned her gauntlets. "That's my way of doing it." She said.

' _Easy for you too say you're a fusion..'_ Steven thought, looking at the stotic gem with slight envy, she was so cool, he could never be that powerful, even if he was his mother.

* * *

Well obviously this time he knew he wasn't supposed to recreate the cookie cat incident, and have that mess all over again, but it was the only time he'd get to show the gems his shield for a while...He decided against it, it was too time consuming, and the mother gem monster should appear any time now so he needed to be ready to help this gems. He glanced over to the gems, they were mumbling something, he leaned in closer to hear them.

"We need to look for the gem monster!" Pearl said.

"What about Steven?! Without a weapon even if we do find it he'll be defenseless!" Amethyst said. Worry crossed their faces.

"But he still is part of Rose, he has to learn to summon his weapon.." Garnet cut in, "He's a crystal gem too, I'm sure it will come too him in time." She muttered. Pearl stared at Garnet. She still couldn't handle the fact that Rose was really gone, Steven could tell this too. Suddenly a loud rumble cut in.

"It's the mother!" Garnet said, running out of the house. Pearl and Amethyst followed.

"Stay in the house Steven!" Pearl yelled. Steven glanced at the gem monster.

"No way! I'm coming too! I can help!" He said, running out, he could help the gems, he had his mothers shield he could protect them like always, even if they don't remember it. He ran out of the house, following the gems, and getting ready to use his shield, they'd be so proud of them. Steven stared at the fight on the roof, waiting for the gem monster to fall down onto the ground. Steven followed them to the gem monster as it got up, spraying acid at the gems, they dove for one of the statues hands to take cover behind.

"We have to save Steven!" pearl said as Steven ran out in front of the Centipeedle.

"Can we save ourselves first!" Amethyst yelled. Steven focused. Another spray of acid shot towards the gems, he needed to summon his shield, and quick..But he couldn't keep it there forever he had to turn the Centipeedle away from the gems so they could summon their weapons and defeat it.

"Hey over here!" Steven yelled from behind it, it shot a spray of acid at him and he dodged, ready to summon his shield if needed. The gems summoned their weapons, not noticing the sprays of acid coming towards them, Pearl noticed first and yelped, flinching back. Steven cut in front of it, summoning his shield to protect them.

"Steven- It's a shield!" Pearl cried. Steven grinned.

"Yes! I- I did it! Woo hoo!" He cheered, as acid beat back against the shield and straight at the Centipeedle, it sent it back flying, paralyzed on the floor for a few seconds, before coming back up. The gems shot straight at the centipeedle. Garnet punched it with her gauntlets, sending it back giving Pearl enough time to hit it in the eye, Amethyst whipped it back towards Garnet as she punched it several more times, before Pearl sent the final blow to it in the back, it poofed into a single gem.

The air was silent for a moment as Garnet bubbled the gem and sent it too the temple. Pearl hugged him.

"Steven that was nuts! But, good job saving us!" Amethyst said, punching him in the arm playfully. Steven laughed.

"Yeah..I did it." he smiled at them, he had his cookie cat wrapper still in his pocket from before he buried it under ground and put a leaf on top.

"Good job little man!" Amethyst cheered Steven on.

"Yes, that was a very brave act for saving us back there." Pearl said, looking at Steven, maybe he really was like Rose after all. "You're a trooper." She said, Garnet came up behind him and ruffled his hair.

* * *

 _ **Well, I think I did alright for the first chapter...This was more fun than it should have been to write, well hope you enjoyed! Look forward to the next chapter that might come out soon, hopefully!**_


	2. Lazer Light Cannon

_**Well, It looks like people want me to continue this, I think...Well even if they don't I will anyway!**_

 _ **Also in this chapter there will be a lot of foreshadowing for future evens because really now, you don't expect this too be just me quoting episodes and Steven just thinking, 'Oh I remember this part!' No no no...There will be MUCH more to this... Plus this is one of my favorite episodes in the series so I thought I'd have a bit more fun with some light foreshadowing.**_

* * *

Steven and Amethyst sat side by side at the counter, grinning for one of their favorite snacks, fry bits, the sun was beginning to set, hazily pouring over the streets of beach city...not much activity roamed the streets, only a curious Ronaldo staring at something in the sky looked at all lively...Unless you count the two gems at the counter begging for their fry bits.

"Steven we're closed." The oldest fry man said, begging them to go easy on the counter before they broke it, especially Amethyst.

"Aw what?!" Steven asked, Amethyst cut in,

"Give em' the bit's!" Amethyst said, banging on the counter once more. "The bit's! The bit's!" She began chanting. Steven followed, laughing in between chants.

"Okay okay! Take it easy on the counter." He said before disappearing into the small dark room to prepare the fry bits.

"Works every time." Steven laughed. He awaited his fry bits as the sun began to set. They high fived each other for their achievement. The fry man set down their fry bits and Steven saw something in the sky. His eyes went wide. "Uh..Is that...A second sun?" Steven asked. He knew exactly what it was, it was the red eye...Peridot mentioned it before, it was too report gems on the planet. He was hauled off towards Garnet and Pearl, "My bits!" He cried.

"Guys did you see that thing in the sky?!" Amethyst asked, Steven was ready to bolt he didn't need to hear this, they just barely made it last time before it crushed them all.

"Yes, some of us are trying to protect humanity where were you?" Pearl asked.

"Eating fry bits." Amethyst said casually as if it wasn't a problem at all. Steven was sweating with anticipation. He had to get to his dad and find the light cannon again...

"Steven?" Pearl asked seeing how nervous the boy was. Steven snapped out of his concentration.

"U-Uh I'm fine!" He lied, he saw Garnet staring at him, he needed to tell the gems...about all of this, too see if they could help. "Guys I-" He was cut off as a rock hit him upside the head. "Huh?" He said quietly, the red eye wasn't close enough to start lifting up rocks, or anything for that matter. Someone must have thrown it at him. He didn't have time to explain himself anyways, he bolted for the car wash.

"Steven?!" The gems called after the boy, he kept running, he had no time. he rubbed the back of his head it still hurt form the rock, but who could have thrown it? Maybe Lars? No..He was at the Big Donut why would he not be? Just to throw a rock at Steven...He didn't last time, Steven would have remembered that.

He pushed his feet to go faster, he needed to cut back on the doughnuts and fry bits. A glimmer caught his eye as he was running, he didn't stop, but he sure did see it, he kept trudging too, 'It's a wash!' he needed his dad to get open the storage, and get the light cannon.

He briskly climbed on top of the van, taking a second to stare at the Red eye, ' _Not this time..'_ He thought to himself. He banged his feet on the van.

"Daaad~ Daaaaad~!" Steven called, he knew his father was inside, "Common we have to save the world!" he said, slipping and falling down, activating the car alarm and grinning.

"Who's-" Greg was cut off when Steven got in front of him.

"It's me dad! I need the light cannon that belonged to mom!" Steven insisted, jumping nervously and anxiously. His dad blinked for a second.

"Steven...What are you doing up so late?" He asked, not noticing the still brightly lit sky.

"The sun just set an hour ago." He stated, not wasting any time. His dad blushed a bit.

"Oh, it was a...slow day at the car wash.." He said sheepishly. Steven looked at him with impatience and he got the message.

"Alright, if it's anywhere-" He paused to life up the garage door, "It'll be in here." He finished, Steven quickly got a flashlight and tied it onto his head with a sock and laughed.

"Alright..." He went inside, it was just as he remembered it, like a dad museum. "It's a dad museum!" He echoed his thoughts, accidentally cracking a photo. "Dad! I think I cracked this old photo.." He said guiltily.

"It's okay buddy if every pork chop were perfect we wouldn't have hot dogs!" He joked with his old catchphrase. Steven laughed a bit before noticing the faint glow coming from the back of the shed.

"Dad I found it!" He cried, seeing the large cannon in a faint rose colored glow. "Get the van!" He said, attempting to crawl out of the mess. A glimmer caught his eye, he caught a glimpse of a faint purple string..It seemed to glow, it had a tiny gem on its tip, Steven pocketed the strange looking thing to show the gems later. It wasn't there the last time..was it?

He crawled out of the tumbling mess, watching the compacted junk turn to a pile in a matter of seconds and reveal the light cannon.

Steven grinned pulling out a red wagon and setting the cannon inside. "I think we're good to go!" Steven said, hopping in the van and taking out an old CD, immediately putting it in without another word, needing some music to calm down and raise everyone's spirits since they seemed to not be too happy at this particular moment, he let himself zone into the music, forgetting about the menacing red eye about to crush them all for just a moment.

"I couldn't give those things away." His dad sheepishly laughed as his son began to sing the lyrics happily.

* * *

Approaching the beach the two unhooked the cannon, rolling it over too the sand, Steven insisted they leave the van a little away so it wouldn't get sucked up. His dad agreed. Steven left the CD going as they readied the light cannon.

"S-Steven?! How did you-" pearl was cut off as Garnet spoke.

"There's no time we need to find out how to activate it!" She cried. Steven spoke up.

"It's okay guys! If every pork chop were perfect..We wouldn't have-" Steven was cut off as a loud humming was heard form the red eye, it widened, glowing a pink. "We wouldn't have hot dogs!" Steven cried as the light cannon glowed, aiming at the red eye. Steven helped aim it and the rest of the gems came over to help readily.

"Brace yourselves!" Garnet cried as the light cannon emitted a large energy beam, sending Steven back a few inches, crashing into Pearl, before regaining his composure. He looked up just in time too see the Red eye explode, a large rock came down, Steven realized he made a mistake, it crashed right into his dads van.

The city calmed down as they all took a moment to process everything. The gems left Greg to do his thing.

"I live in there!" They heard Greg say as he went over too it, it was fixable, just not anything inside of it. "It's okay dad if every pork chop we're perfect-" Steven was cut off by the bewildered Pearl by his side.

"H-how did you know that would work, and how did you even know to look for a light cannon?!" pearl asked.

"W-well...I saw it while going through dads shed and said that thing dad always says and it glowed, so I figured it's be my best bet." Steven lied, struggling to keep a honest face. The gems seemed fine with the answer and left Steven to clean up the debree from the Red eye. Steven was sure too ask the gems about it later, but was way too tired right now...He unconsciously crept his hand towards his pocket, clutching the purple glinting string, the gem broke, allowing the shards to gleam away, as the boy fell asleep on the wet sand.

* * *

 _ **Yay foreshadowing! Also any guest reviews I will answer down at the bottom of the story, and any reviews that people have signed in for I will private message! And since I got no guest reviews then there's nothing to put down here except too see you next time, and that this took about a day to actually finish...**_


	3. Cheeseburger Backpack

_**Note: I WILL BE UPDATING ON THURSDAYS FROM NOW TILL THE END OF THE STORY UNLESS I HAVE A SPECIAL CHAPTER, A TWO PARTER, OR A EARLY ONE, THEN THOSE SPECIFIC ONES WILL BE ON TUESDAYS.**_

 _ **Also, this chapter was made before I released the chapter: Lazer Light Cannon, so any reviews, I may not be able too get too right away, but I assure you will be answered by the next chapter.**_

 _ **Also this chapter starts out pretty slow too get to the exciting stuff, but be patient!**_ _ **The first part is basically the same as the original so feel free to skip it if you please, but don't go too far ahead, because there will be surprise's in this chapter!**_

 _ **Other than that, enjoy!**_

* * *

"Cheeseburger backpack, cheeseburger backpack!" Steven silently chanted as Jamie the mailman approached his home. Jamie smiled at Steven, fumbling in his bag for his item. "Do you have my package?!" Steven asked excitedly.

"Let's see...Did you order a loaf of bread with a stamp on it?" Jamie asked, holding up a loaf of bread sealed in plastic with a large stamp covering the shook his head. "Did you order a Jury summons for RJ finkle?" He asked holding up a postcard.

"No!" He cried. "That's not me I'm Steven!" He quickly added.

"Ah that's right Steven Universe!" Jamie held up a package. Stevens eyes grew stars in them.

"Yes! This is gonna help me save the world!" Steven insisted. "Yes I know it's from Wakie Sack supply company." Steven added before Jamie could respond. "Garnet Amethyst and Pearl think I shouldn't go on missions because I can't use my gem very well! But I'm gonna prove them wrong!" He insisted, the stars in his eyes growing big.

"That seems reasonable." Jamie simply stated, "But with a Wakie Sack?" Jamie asked.

"Yep!" Steven said. "Trust me I'm gonna save the world with this!"

"You know how you can save my world? Sign here please." Jamie held up a signature sheet, Steven quickly signed it, dotting it with stars around his name and putting the pen back. Before Jamie could say anything else the warp pad activated, illuminating the home, and part of the beach with blue light that poured through the windows.

"Garnet,Amethyst, and Pearl are back!" Steven cried, taking the backpack and running inside.

"Wait Steven?! What is a Wakie sack-" Jamie was cut off as Steven entered the home.

"Hello Steven." Garnet greeted, she was covered in feathers form head to toe, but didn't seemingly care at all. Pearl was clearly annoyed, but what caught Steven's eye was what was in her hands.

' _The sea spire..'_ Steven thought just as he heard a large crack from inside the fridge...great it was the egg Amethyst brought home, Steven would have too make an omelette some day..

"We fought a giant bird." pearl stated.

"Cool!" Steven said with diamonds in his eyes, he loved birds, well, he liked them even more until he was eaten by one..

"We have to place this moon goddess statue on the top of the sea spire before midnight, if not the whole place will fall apart! Oh Steven you should have seen the spire in its hay day! It was an oasis for gems on Earth it's abandoned now.. But we can still save it! With this statue!" Pearl said, remembering the old sea spire and its beauty... _'Oh it was magnificent, if only Steven had seen it.'_ Pearl thought.

"Awesome! I can come too! I even got this new backpack! I'm gonna save the world with it!" Steven said, pulling out the cheeseburger backpack, " _Bwing bwing bwing.."_ Steven make the sound effects while he pulled it out, his eyes covered in diamonds and stars. "I'm a gem too!"

"Yes, and you still have a lot to learn." Pearl stated.

"Oh come on P. let him come! It'll be educational!" Amethyst bribed, she knew Steven deserved too come, even if pearl didn't see it.

"Hm...Fine you can carry it in your hamburger." Pearl gave in, tossing the statue too the boy who just barely caught it. Steven grinned and tossed it in the backpack, he felt something else in his backpack, he decided to check it out when he packed. "Well I need to pack some gear!" Steven insisted, running up too his loft.

* * *

Steven packed medical supplies, sweaters, a raft, food (particularly a few biscuits) And the sea spire. He felt in his bag for the item he'd felt earlier and pulled out... ' _What..whats that doing in there..?'_ Steven asked, he rubbed the smooth surface with his palm, tracing the lines that divided the top from the bottom of the gem.

"Centipeedle.." Steven whispered, turning form the gems so they wouldn't see it. "How did it get in here..?" Steven asked, the gem began to glow, "Oh no.." Steven said, balling up over the gem, attempting too keep it from regenerating, but too no avail as it proceeded too glow, levitating in the air with Steven holding onto it, he fell onto the ground, staring up at the gem.

It took on a humanoid appearance first, growing into a large centipeedle after. It stared at the bow who cowered in fear at the regenerating monster, it shrunk too a more pet-like size. Steven gasped.

"C-Centipeedle." Steven whispered, he glanced back the gems were in their rooms in the temple, they'd be back any second now, they were most likely talking about this being a test for Steven.

As if on cue Pearl walked out of the temple door, "Steven are you ready-" She gasped seeing the regenerating monster inching its way towards Steven. She drew her spear attempting to whack the monster.

"Wait!" Steven cried, shielding the monster, it cowered at the sight of the weapon, spraying acid onto the floor in an attempt to flee, Pearl whacked away the monster, pushing past Steven. Amethyst and Pearl came out of the temple just in time too see Pearl shove the monster away from Steven, they immediately saw the hold made by the centipeedle, with acid dripping down the sides.

Steven cut in front of Pearl and Centipeedle. "Wait it's not a threat! I found it in my backpack and accidentally let it out! I don't know how it got there!" Steven cried. He gasped for a bit, there was nothing, but silence until Garnet spoke up.

"Are you sure you have no idea how it got in there?" Garnet asked. Steven nodded, still arms outstretched in front of the monster. Steven showed a small smile as everybody put away their weapons. Steven went into the cabinets to grab some Chips.

Steven held out the bag towards the monster, "It's okay, just relax..." Steven said, the gems backed up for a moment. "Just like before.." He said quieter so the gems wouldn't hear. The Centipeedle came closer, grabbing at the beg with its jaws. Steven smiled and handed a chip over towards the Centipeedle, it ate it quickly, begging for more. Steven laughed throwing chips into the air for it to catch. "See! Hes calm!" Steven said, smiling.

"Are we really going to let him keep that?" Pearl asked. Garnet nodded, Amethyst seemed fine with it. Pearl sighed. "Come on lets just get to the spire." Pearl said, Steven fumbled in his backpack, yes the statue was still there. He looked over too Centipeedle and grinned. Maybe this time Centipeedle could stay with them

* * *

Steven warped in, planting hit feet down on the invisible ground, making sure not to lift off the ground, laughing when his shirt almost came off in the stream. He pushed it down, his head falling out of the warp stream.

"Keep your head in." Pearl ordered, pulling the boy closer, Pearl brought her knees close to her chest as she cringed at thick acid pouring down her shoe form the centipeedle. She let out a disgusted groan. Amethyst and Steven laughed at this. Centipeedle looked happy for its appreciation. Steven was just happy there were no icicles this time to crush the poor monster.

The Centipeedle levitated off the ground in the warp stream, kicking its small legs in an attempt to come down, Steven caught it and brought them down, his grin faded as he felt acid hit his shoulder and set it down. They were gonna have to work on that.

* * *

They warped onto a cliff that led straight too the spire, Steven knew just what too do."I have an idea!"

He pulled out two mismatched sweaters and tied them to a ledge just above the doorway, he jumped off, quickly grabbing Centipeedle between his arms, earning a protest from Pearl and Garnet, Amethyst grinned, ready too do the same once Steven and his pet, got up to the ground.

"C'mon guys!" Amethyst grabbed Pearl and Garnet and jumped off the cliff, her whip holding onto the ledge and pulling themselves up as they hit solid ground. Pearl was astonished.

"Don't ever do that again!" Pearl scolded. "But...That was pretty cool." Pearl said too Steven, earning her a prideful smile from the boy, and an odd sound form Centipeedle everyone assumed too be a 'Thank you.' Well, at least that's what Steven thought. Steven patted the matted monsters hair.

"Oh no no no...This is even worse than the outside.." Pearl examined the pillars and bottom floor of the palace, remembering back when it was a popular site for gems on Earth, now it's nothing but gem heritage.. As Pearl walked up the stairs she continued too rant, "Oh...No... This didn't use too be so- Oh and the water damage- this pillar...Oh and this had a head. Steven, once we place the statue at the gem spire all of this will return too its former glory." Pearl said, "Oh-oh whoa.." She said, slicing off a statute, several gem monsters fell down into the depths of the whirlpool below. "Crystal shrimp.." Pearl murmured.

"You guys! We got a problem!" Amethyst called down too the two. Pearl rushed up the stairs with Steven following her, and close behind Centipeedle. Steven grinned happily, reaching into his bag before Pearl devised her plan. He stopped looking when he saw Centipeedle spray acid towards a nearby ledge, allowing several crystal shrimp too fall down with it.

"Good job buddy!" Amethyst cheered to the Centipeedle, Steven looked at it, he was proud, but envious. He plastered a small smile too his face, Pearl was bewildered at the Centipeedle, and yeah, you guessed it, Garnet did nothing, except push some more shrimp over the edge with her gauntlets, clearing almost half of the shrimp. Steven cheered.

"Woo hoo!" He ran across the platform, most of the shrimp were on the other side of the room, they didn't bother anyone, Steven felt bad for killing their friends when they were not harming anything, maybe one day he can befriend one! He could have a whole army of gem monsters! Maybe even some more gems too recruit too! Like peridot and Lapis! Steven laughed a bit at his fantasy, he vowed too have Peridot and Lapis join the crystal gems, and have a monster army, but that could come later.

The group walked up the flight of stairs, "Watch out!" Garnet yelled, pushing the group back, Steven fell over, tripping over Centipeedle.

"Oh I'm sorry-" He was cut off as a loud spray of water was heard, causing a full river to explode into a trench in front of them, it was moving too fast for them too cross. Steven fumbled in his bag, all he found was a raft, and he knew that wouldn't work, he wanted too pass the test this time. Garnet became impatient and knocked the pillar down, allowing them too cross. Steven sighed, he still had a chance though.

"Nice try anyways Steven, they can't all be winners." Amethyst said as she crossed, Steven grabbed Centipeedle, crossing the pillar too the top. Something flashed in Stevens eye too his right on the wall, Centipeedle seemed too have seen it though, and began spaying acid everywhere, Steven lost his balance.

"W-Whoa!" Steven said, eyes wide as he clung to Centipeedle, the acid came back down, breaking down the pillar and leaving Steven and Centipeedle to float on a small piece.

"Steven!" he heard the gems yell in panic. Centipeedle had calmed down, taking in everything around it and shaking, Steven clung to it, making it calm down, but still looking around in panic for something to cling too so they could stop falling, but nothing came to view.

* * *

 _ **This was what I was talking about when I said a 'Two parter' either it's a real two parter form the series, or a chapter becomes really long and still has way too much too go so I hate too cut it in half, but don't worry I'll post the next chapter on Tuesday! So look forward too it!**_


	4. Authors Note: YeahI'm bad at this

_**Well, I guess your all wondering where the next chapter is...and honestly I have no excuse other than I figured this entire fanfiction thing was only for fun so I wasn't gonna stress over updates..I have science fair coming up and I just got a topic, so not only am I busy I just have writers block and don't really wanna update. I know. I know. I suck at this and I shouldn't have put up a sue date in the first place, but I'd rather not stress over this and getting it up on time so I'm just gonna have to update whenever I really can, to be honest I haven't even started on the next chapter... SO I am very sorry for the inconvenience I will try to update fast, but no promises as to when, I wanna finish at least chapter eight before publishing four. If you all don't like it then you don't have to read at all this was meant to be a fun hobby.**_


	5. Cheeseburger Backpack 2: Spire's secrets

_**Hello and once again I AM SO SORRY FOR LATE UPDATES ugh I wish school was still on summer break...Nevertheless hope you enjoy!**_

* * *

Steven and Centipeedle fell down into the gravitational pull and into the vortex filled with water, he screamed and yelped, his shirt catching a few ledges now and then, but it wasn't enough to stop the pull of gravity from taking it's toll on the two, Centipeedle was safely tucked in Stevens cheeseburger backpack, it was open just enough too support the Centipeedle as an air hole, but not enough too make it be able too escape, its feet and legs were too small too get a good grip anyways, it also helped that it didn't have any thumbs or fingers.

Steven fell into the water, with a plop into the water, it left a red mark on his stomach, he acted as a cushion for centipeedle, the rest of the way down was peaceful, and slow, Steven stared at the ground below as he swam down the water fall into a lake, they were obviously in the sky, he looked up, seeing a large ocean above him instead of clouds, it looked like it was sprinkling, but it was just pieces of the water above managing too get out off the Spires grip and fall down into the lakes below.

Steven and Centipeedle made it down onto the land, Steven pulled out his raft, inflating it and jumping in, leaving Centipeedle in there, but letting it poke it's head out to scan its new environment, it was really quite beautiful.

"What could have cause you too act up like this?" Steven half questioned and half scolded the Centipeedle for being so reckless, he guessed Pearl really did rub off on him at times. Centipeedle lowered it's head, Steven patted the matter hair awkwardly, avoiding patches where acid had stung the poor monster. Steven was sympathetic towards his..pet, and gave a reassuring smile. "It's alright, you didn't mean too." He said, giving the Centipeedle a rub on its stomach as he had with Lion, he still needed to re-recruit the fluffy pink Lion once again.

He stared out at the vast lake, it was quite big, but maroon grass lie on the end of the lake, it was land! Steven paddled towards it, the water had a thickness too it, and unlike the sea spires water, this water had a sunset tint too it, pink, red, orange, and yellow, and the occasional purple and dark blue floated in the water, acting as if it was a whole separate liquid. Steven stuck his hand into the pink tinted water, his hands seemed too go right through it actually, as if it wasn't really there, it was the same light pink tint that Rose's room had, in fact the pink water had a cloudy feel too it, as if he could jump right into it and land straight into his mothers room.

He stuck his hand in the yellow, it had such a unnatural feel too it, something he couldn't even describe, it was..uncomfortable really, and it was warm, unlike the pink which was a calming cool, like a summer breeze had become eroded with snowflakes, it was wonderful, but this was not wonderful, it was unnerving and honestly, Steven didn't quite like it as much, it reminded him of homeworld really, it seemed like it would be a unnatural and unnerving place, but Steven never thought of homeworld as..warm. He thought of warm as good, so did that mean he thought this colored water was both good and bad? It added too the uncomfortable factor of the tinted water really. Steven stuck his hand out, yellow dripping off his fingers, he stuck his hand in the normal water, letting the yellow wash away.

They were almost too shore already! Steven must've wasted some time examining the colored water, if they were this close, they could practically jump straight onto shore now! But Steven wouldn't risk it, he paddled just a bit closer, his hand accidentally resting in some red, it was scalding! Steven's hand rushed out, just in time for him to feel the bump off the shore collide with his raft. Steven grinned.

"Come on little buddy! Let's explore!" Stevens eyes grew wide, stars forming in them with excrement of a real adventure! And not one potentially killing him this time! Well, that wasn't completely true...He didn't care though he was excited. No one could've blamed him though he was a kid, he loved adventure. Steven unzipped his backpack, allowing Centipeedle to briskly jump out and beside the boy, he was happy that the Centipeedle didn't just bolt and never look back.

* * *

As Steven walked he talked to Centipeedle about what it was like as a humanoid gem. "I wonder what you looked like! You were probably super cool! With awesome hair like you have now! Were you still green?! What kind of gem did you have? Were you apart of the Crystal gems or homeworld?" Steven cringed a bit at the mention of homeworld and that something as wonderful as Centipeedle could have originated there. Centipeedle of course didn't answer any of the questions and really Steven was pretty okay with that, he'd rather the Centipeedle not say anything than to somehow begin talking and explaining everything too him, it would freak him out most likely.

Steven looked up, "Whoa!" He gasped seeing a floating pillar, it was glowing yellow, he stuck his hand into the aura, feeling at the pillar, it was just as he'd thought, it had the same fell as the yellow tinted water, warm and unnerving. He pulled his hands away, looking around for another, close by was a orange one, bigger than the yellow one, it wasn't a surprise though since there was more orange tinted water so it most likely went by how much tinted water there was too determine how big the pillar was, or the other way around.

"Ah!" Steven gasped as a crystal shrimp fell straight towards him from out of the water, he expected impact and then sharp crystals burning his flesh, or stinging him, or poofing him, or electrocuting- He stopped in his thoughts, noticing nothing was happening. He opened his eyes, the crystal shrimp had gone right through him! Steven touched the pillar, he could still touch that...Why not anything else? He touched Centipeedle, so obviously he could touch things that came down with him like Centipeedle, the raft, and his cheeseburger backpack, and these odd pillar things, Steven brought one down closer, inspecting it, a thick glob of acid hit it, vaporizing it, the yellow water suddenly dried up immediately, the maroon grass turned yellow tinted for a moment, shifting too a lighter version of the previous maroon, now looking a bit more like red violet. Steven looked towards the orange pillar, not daring to touch it after the red colors incident..but maybe...maybe it was his only way out of here..it was worth a shot.

"Sqee!" Steven said, while moving his arms like wings, the Centipeedle was taken aback by the odd noise, Steven earned a glob of acid spitting at the orange pillar. The orange water dried up, and the grass turned too a dark purple, with a bit of red tint, Steven noticed how light the ground felt now, before it was heavy, and the gravity had made him move a bit slower, he didn't notice it at first though, but now he felt really light, maybe if he destroyed all the pillars he could float through and get back too the sea spire! Somehow. Steven pulled out a bag of chips throwing a handful at Centipeedle, it took this as a treat of doing a good job and continued too shoot things with acid, from just random flowers, too water, and then a small purple pillar, causing the purple water, which honestly wasn't much, too dry up and the ground too turn purple.

Steven noticed a pattern they all seemed too go in a circle around Steven...as if...trapping him? Steven felt in his pocket...The purple string from earlier...Where had the gem gone? Wasn't there a gem at the tip of the string? Steven held it out too examine it further, but a harsh wind snatched it form his palms.

Steven kept spraying pillars until the ground was nothing more than a white transparent cloud, he couldn't feel it, it was hardly noticeable until he fell out of the clouds grasp that he was falling through, the water was completely dried up except for the water above.

A gravitational pull pulled him and Centipeedle up back into the sea spire area, Steven congratulated Centipeedle by throwing it some chips for it to catch.

* * *

Steven gasped, he was soggy and wet, he had landed right in front of the river, he climbed up the steps, seeing the gems with pure panic on their faces, they brightened upon seeing Steven, hugs were given all around, Steven was about to tell them everything, but instead fell asleep in Garnets arms, she smiled, taking the statue from him and placing it on the spire, it glowed blindingly, causing Steven too blink a few times, but then fall back asleep, cradled in Garnets arms, the spire was re-fixing itself, pillars were building up, stairs on longer crumbled, and floors were whole again, and roofs no longer threatened to cave in which was a big bonus, the gravitational pull below seemed too slow a bit, calming down and the water slowed too a calming speed, the sound of the water hitting the whirlpool was no longer threatening and deafening, but instead relaxing and reassuring. The three smiled.

"Looks like he passed." Was all Pearl managed too say once she'd broken out of her state of pure shock and confusion, She kept a close eye on Centipeedle. "But what do we do about.." Pearl trailed off.

Amethyst shrugged, "We keep it P. it's Steven's." Amethyst said, jumping down the stairs, Garnet followed, then Pearl.

"B-but, Garnet! Please, tell Amethyst, is this really a good idea?!" Pearl asked, looking to Garnet for reassurance, she only shrugged stoically, a blank face plastered on, she cradled the boy closer, asking Pearl too guard the Centipeedle and make sure it doesn't wander off. Pearl nodded reluctantly.

"Ugh..This is gonna be a long week." Pearl groaned, Centipeedle sprayed acid as if agreeing. Pearl smiled a bit, patting the Centipeedle on the head. "Good...Pet..Monster." She said.

* * *

 _ **Yeah this chapter was a bit cliche...Gems go too a sea spire, boy falls and they think he died, hes stuck in some other magical place, and he comes back after some time, but aside from that I think it wasn't that bad. I hope.**_

 _ **Now onto reviews, favorites, follows, and shout outs!**_

 _ **Favorites: Thank you too, Darkmatter2001, Double-Tarts, Random Fanfic Fan aka Seki108, SonicPlayer1225, Team MLP, iggychan89, AP2015 Franken Strike, GKC07NF, Randal435, Rocky Wierd, and three1996.**_

 _ **Follows: Thank you too, Darkmatter2001, Double-Tarts, Let my dragons roar, SonicPlayer1225, Team MLP, brycel, iggychan89, madfox01, meggis, EllenAllenPoe, AP2015, Mohr or less, The Master of Judgment, F**_ _ **ranken Strike, GKC07NF, Randal435, SneaselXRiolu, Lady Shadow, GR59, Madeoflove14, Pheonix Keeper Avalon,**_ _ **and varying tastes.**_

 _ **Reviews: Thanks go too, Random fanfic fan aka Ski108, meggis, madfox01, Anon, Daniel Komnenid, Randal435, Lady Shadow, SneaselXRiolu, Madeoflove14, and Mohr or less.**_

 ** _Guess reviews:  
Anon: R: Okay, I'm interested keep going._**

 _ **Answer: Thanks! I like too know I'm doing a good job :)**_

 _ **Daniel: R: Care to explain?**_

 _ **Answer: Basically Steven went back in time from the point where the series went on hiatus, back to gem glow, hes confused as too what happened and notices off changes this time around, other than that the rest will explain itself over time.**_

 _ **Gosh! There was a lot of support over these three chapters! I couldn't list them all, after a while it just became overwhelming.. Thank you all it means so much to me that you all like this fanfiction, and those who don't, I appreciate you for simply reading the fanfiction, or even glancing over it, thank you all and look forward too the next chapter! OVER 40 FOLLOWS AND 27 FAVORITES WERE OVER THESE FOUR CHAPTERS THIS IS THE BEST I'VE EVER DONE! THANK YOU ALL!**_


	6. Together Breakfast

_**This was so hard too write at 9:00 AM...And hard to write in general since Steven already knows what'll happen with the Together Breakfast, and it was hard to write the way Steven acts after jailbreak doing this. But, it'll all work out, just not the way I know a lot of you would have expected, nor probably wanted, but it works!**_

 _ **Also! I just found out the Steven Universe episodes were on hiatus until September!? Oh man that sucks...I was looking forward too the next episode now I have too wait another month..Oh man...Well putting that aside hope you enjoy!**_

 _ **EDIT: Well since I went on hiatus I didn't post this chapter till AFTER the episode so you can tell how long its been since I have edited this chapter. Although I came up with some pretty good ideas in this amount of time!**_

* * *

Steven put the microwavable popcorn in the microwave, watching the bag expand as the kernels puffed out into edible popcorn. He sat at a stool, playing with Centipeedle while he waited. The monster spit a glob of acid below the microwave when Steven tripped over him in his game of tag. The counter had a huge hole in it, Steven looked guiltily at the hole, glancing to Centipeedle, who was trying its best too climb onto the counter and eat the delicious popcorn. Acid dripped down its mouth like drool, it focused it's attention on the popcorn. Steven laughed.

"Wait so does this mean gem monsters like to eat too?" He had never thought about it before. He patted the monsters messy hair, deciding that later he'd ask Pearl to comb it's hair, it looked painful when the hair got caught in its mouth and the Centipeedle chewed on it hungrily. Steven took out the popcorn, throwing it in the air and laughing as it caught it in the air playfully. Steven had a thought, Centipeedle was an official member of the Crystal gems right? So it deserved too see the temple! Steven grinned.

"Wanna see the temple!?" Steven asked, knowing he'd get no response, but answered with an,"Okay!" Assuming the Centipeedle even understood him to begin with. He pulled along the treat with him. He opened it up, but instantly remembered- too late, Garnet came warping into the temple through he warp pad, bumping Steven, and almost dropping the scrolls in her hand. She looked at him stoically, before a smile crept up onto her face, it was brief, but noticeable. She was obviously curious as to where he was going, but like usual she held her curiosity in and kept her stotic facade draped across her face. Steven noticed Centipeedle was drooling on her leg, she seemed to not notice as she brushed past Steven and opened the temple doors.

Catching a brief glance of all the gems bubbled in the room Steven shuddered, so many gems, kept captive, even if he knew it was for the best, he began thinking of Centipeedle, all trapped in a bubble, unable to fully regenerate from its gem, if Steven hadn't popped it would the poor Centipeedle have been kept forever in that state, bordering regenerating, and regeneration stages, and never knowing when or if it would ever be able to see the outside world again.

Steven snapped out of his thoughts when Centipeedle started chewing on his sandle anxiously. "Hey!" Steven cried, flinging the gem monster off of his sandle weakly, only managing to toss it a foot or two away. Steven grinned, leading the centipeedle inside. "You're gonna love the temple!"

* * *

"What do you mean Stevens not here?!" A voice cried out, it was Pearl, she was looking around frantically for the boy, they had checked his "room" if you could even call it that and found no sign of the small carefree boy. The pale gem was nearly tearing her bangs out in stress, had they done something wrong? Was it because of their last mission? Thoughts raced through Pearls head as she frantically checked the house three times over

"I mean he's not there! I hadn't seen him so I figured we'd go to the big doughnut ( ** _Of course spell checker won't let me type the actual name so I'm forced to type "Doughnut")_** like usual and I couldn't find him." Amethyst said for the thousandth time since Pearl had freaked out.

"Pearl you're overreacting." Garnet stated, inside however Ruby and Sapphire were in turmoil over the lost boy. But somehow she managed to keep her stotic expression on her face.

"I'M NOT OVERREACTING!" She cried, falling into a a tight ball and staying there, it was silent for a minute or so before Garnet broke the silence.

"It doesn't matter, we need to focus on finding Steven, the first place we should check is the kindergarten maybe he wandered off there." Amethyst said.

* * *

 ** _OH YEAH DID I MENTION THAT THE LAST PART WAS AFTER "FRIEND SHIP" I bet I tricked some of you into thinking that was past Garnet Amethyst and Pearl...(Probably not though...) OH WELL! Back to the story!_**

* * *

 _Past_

Steven and centipeedle first checked Pearls room, making sure she wasn't inside (Because obviously she'd have a fit for the gem monster to be inside her room.) He let the centipeedle splash around for a bit before he hopped up to the tallest pillar, allowing them both to gaze at the beautiful sight Steven let himself be lost in thought of what might happen, and that he was kinda glad he went back..Now he could fix things...He could make sure they catch Peridot...Find out the secret of the spire...Prevent the cluster...But first comes first, and that's training Centipeedle-

"STEVEN!"

' _Huh?'_ He thought, he looked around frantically it was Pearl, Garnet, and Amethyst voices? How could that be? They weren't anywhere in the room as far as he could tell?

"Pearl? Garnet? Amethyst~?" He called, no answer, did he just imagine it? He knew he didn't the second he felt something cold touch the back of his neck, then the pain registered..And all he could see was white and black colors, blending into an unsettling gray.

* * *

 _ **Pretty short chapter, but a lot of content (I sorta came up with most of it on a whim...) But anyways! I can no longer type the letter "Z" on my computer cause it is stuck, right now I'm typing on my grandmas computer, but on my own I'm gonna have to use spell checker a lot more just to get the letter "Z" To type. Welp! Hope you've enjoyed and until next time~!**_


	7. Frybo

_**Because this is just everyone's favorite episode...**_

 _ **Also I deleted the previous chapter because it was more of an experiment than anything and since not many people seemed to like it I just deleted it, the chapter was the side mission thing and I decided it wasn't worth keeping.**_

* * *

Steven woke up, a warm rag covered his head drenched with water, he sat up slowly, his muscles ached. He groaned softly, looking around and seeing a frantic pearl, ' _What could she be looking for?'_ He thought, suddenly he noticed the game shards in her hand and shuddered, a tear nearly made its way to his eyes as he remembered the gem experiments. ' _Those poor gems..'_ He thought of how scared Garnet looked seeing them, could those shards be the same as the ones used for experiments?

Suddenly all the memories from yesterday filled his head, that's right he heard the gems! Why were they so worried? He felt a sharp headache and instantly figured it was because he was thinking to deeply into this. He sat up and noticed Pearl hadn't even noticed he was up. He called over to her,

"Pearl~!" He cupped his hands over his mouth as he yelled, Pearl turned toward him a frantic look still crossing her face.

"Steven have you by any chance seen any gem shards inhabiting any sort of...clothing or substance perhaps?" Pearl asked. Steven shuddered, Right now Peedee was probably hording off seagulls with his giant french fry hat. Steven shook his head, he honestly hadn't, although he had an idea where it might be. He checked the piles of clothing for anything unusual, upon not finding anything he sighed and went back to his loft, pondering whether to check on Peedee and allowing the events to unfold as they would have before.

* * *

 _Meanwhile at the fry shop..._

"Ahh~!" Peedee cried as seagulls darted at him, "I'm not fries!" He cried, swinging the costume around, he sighed as the flew off, he got lost in thought for a moment before he heard a sharp sound, like a coin being dropped onto a sidewalk, he turned around seeing a light blue crystal and picked it up.

' _What's this?'_ He thought, putting it in his pocked and shrugging it off...well...that was until he felt something in his pocket move..or better yet, his pocket actually move itself. He noticed it was the shard! It as moving his pocket around!

And that was when he had the brilliant idea to put it in the costume.

* * *

 _'I won't let the events unfold any other way...'_ Thought a mysterious figure as it drifted off into the shadows.

* * *

Steven finally decided to head over to the board walk, even if he might run into Peedee, he decided to risk it, he didn't want to give him the shard though, not after what had happened the last time. He jumped off his loft and headed out the door. He stepped outside, it was a dreary day with clouds blocking the sun, fog seemed to drift in and out with every step, it didn't secondarily look like the fog that should come later on this week, but it was certainly enough to give a ghostly look to the town.

How fitting.

He turned the corner, everything that had happened beyond this point was expected. But certainly not _this._ Just like before frybo had gone off out of control and was terrorizing the city, but why? Steven hadn't given Peedee a shard like before so how did frybo have it? He shoved the thought from his mind. There was a bigger threat he needed to take care of, all he needed to do was take the shard out and bring it to Pearl! As long as she didn't show up to see that the shard had mysteriously appeared he had nothing to worry about! He didn't want to think about what might happen if Pearl, Garnet, and Amethyst caught on with what was really going on and start investigating, he couldn't have that, so he had a time limit until Pearl arrived at the boardwalk.

He stood his ground in front of Peedee, guarding the boy from the large costume. "W-what are you gonna do?!" Peedee yelled. '

"My job!" Steven yelled, allowing a smirk to play over his lips as he remembered his clever joke, he charged forward. Nearly pinning the costume down, Steven heard the citizens cry for help as the frybo's fry tentacle things started shoving fries down peoples throats, Steven thought for a moment, oh if he could just- his train of thought was interrupted as he was thrown off Frybo and crashed into Peedee. Steven reached for inside the frybo's mouth, but couldn't reach, he gave up and decided to go behind a table for cover so he could take a breather.

 _'Sigh this is ridiculous...'_ Steven heard as suddenly Frybo was sliced in half by an invisible force, Steven took this chance to grab the shard. He gasped, breathing raspy breaths as the moisture in the air grew heavy, he only had a few minutes until Pearl arrived, despite several people interrupting him, he trudged onto the home.

* * *

"Hey Pearl!" Steven cried, holding the shard in his hand and waving it around for her to see, she turned around from the piles she was digging in she turned to see the shard in his hand and breathed a sigh of relief.

"S-Steven?! H-how did you find it-" Pearl cut off from her sentence smiling. "It doesn't matter all that matters is that you and the shard is safe." She put it in her bubble and whisked it away to Garnets room. Now. To find out _how_ exactly Frybo got the shard.

"I'll be right back!" Steven took off toward the boardwalk once again to investigate.

* * *

As he got there he heard Peedee and his father talking about promoting him, meanwhile Ronaldo was blogging the costume on his blog, but Steven asked anyway.

"What are you doing?" He asked, knowing the answer, and getting excited to hear about his blog.

"Updating my blog! Keep, Beach, City, Weird!" he announced, pausing between words for dramatic effect, Steven let out a giggle. "Its a blog about all of the paranormal that happens in Beach City!" Ronaldo explained. "There has got to be something about this that revolves around the sneaple!" Ronaldo was half talking to himself.

"Sneaple?" Steven asked, truly forgetting for a moment what the "Sneaple" were.

"Their higher beings that work undercover in our government!" Ronaldo said, half whispering, "I probably shouldn't be giving you such classified information on this subject, so I will go back to my investigation." Steven left the fry-man to finish his work and began looking for clues. He stopped, noticing something, he recognized this... It was that purple string with the gems attached to it! Except this time there were three little shards on the end, looking suspiciously like Amethysts whip, just without the studs on the long string. He picked it up, noticing how light it was compared to last time, last time it seemed to be heavy in his pocket, just barely noticeable however, it was still enough to make him wonder.

' _What are these things...'_ He thought just before it was snatched away into Ronaldo's hands to take a picture. "W-wait Ronaldo you really shouldn't be messing with that!" But it was too late, he had already posted it.

Oh what had he done.

* * *

 _ **And that's it! Hope you enjoyed remember to leave a review on how this chapter was! Thanks~!**_


	8. Cat fingers

_**And we have another horror after the first one that is Frybo! Ho freaking Ray.**_

 _ **Edit: HAPPY FALL BREAK TO THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE IT RIGHT NOW! To celebrate it I'll probably be updating my fanfiction a lot more since there's no school :) (Yes I used an emoji. Sue me.)**_

* * *

"R-Ronaldo!" Steven cried as he posted the picture. Ronaldo cast him a half worried half curious glance.

"Is something the matter Steven?" He asked. Steven bit his lip, taking the gem back and shoving it in his pocket, it radiated a warm heat.

"N-no it's nothing. Really." He said. He hated lying but he knew it was best to leave them out of it. Alright, he decided he'd try to hide it from the gems! If anything they'd have much more to do soon, although on the other hand..Around now they're not very busy, so the best time to tell them would be now..He pondered it over in his head for a few more seconds and decided to wait until at least after it was explainable and they'd met Lapis, then he could just explain from there. He started heading to the home. Lying to the gems would be very hard, but he could manage if it meant not potentially driving them headfirst into danger.

He felt the weather get heavier, it was not going to be a clear night, there would probably be thunderstorms at least. He went straight to his home and fell asleep.

* * *

 _Later the next day..._

The day so far had been eventful, he had once again witnessed Amethysts shape shifting powers whilst playing with his dads hose and having water fights, but this time Steven didn't question how to use the powers as he already knew how, and didn't want to experience the whole, "I'm becoming a cat monster" Kinda event. Although... That only made Amethyst suspicious, as when normally she shows him a new power he'd all, "Ooh~! I wanna know how to do that!" Or something along those lines.

Steven paid no mind to it and just made himself a sandwich, wondering when the gems were coming back.

"Steven~!" Amethyst called, "We're gonna fight a living island." She said teasingly. His face lit up, he had never gotten to go the last time! This time maybe he could go!

"Oh! Lemme come! Please~!" He cried, eating some of his sandwich, even after eating an entire box of donuts, he still managed to have room. He ran out the door, not noticing the hint of worry crossing the purple gems face, she still was wondering why he was acting so different, she never told anyone else she'd noticed it, it wasn't obvious enough or serious enough to alert, it was just...He wasn't as easily surprised by things as he used to be, now he seemed to know everything that might happen before it did.

Almost as if he'd had _future vision._ But he couldn't...Could he? Rose Quartz had never had the power of future vision, how could Steven? And if he did, how come it was just showing up _now._ After pondering this for a moment Amethyst shrugged it off as being some weird mood he was in and followed him to the boat where Garnet and Pearl were waiting.

* * *

"Guys guys!" Steven called, waving to them at the boat. Oh. What a huge mistake he had just made. A big mistake.

' _How did he know where to go?'_ Amethyst thought, she didn't catch any sort of hint that the other two had noticed, maybe they just assumed Amethyst had told him. But she didn't. Not even a hint. Amethyst was sure now something was going on, deeper than the optimistic smile facade Steven had always worn. He was hiding something. Something big, she could tell, normally she was easy going, but this kind of thing she just knew, it seemed to sit in the pit of her stomach and give her an uneasy feeling, so much so that she just couldn't forget, even if she could fake it. It was just too big for even her.

Even the easygoing carefree Amethyst could pick up these kind of things. Right? And yet still. She kept her mouth shut.

* * *

Climbing aboard the small boat, possibly considered a raft, the four drifted away towards the island, Steven now was completely clueless, no longer with the advantage of knowing what would happen, he was on his own now.

The boat crashed onto the island, and sure enough, it seemed almost...Living I guess you could say. It didn't move but the colors seemed to move and change, as if expressing emotion, Pearl touched it with her hand before stepping onto the island, and the color shifted to a red tint. She recoiled it back, nearly whacking Garnet in the face.

"Oh I have an idea! Since it expresses emotion and seemingly feels pain," Amethyst gestured to the red spot quickly fading, "We should just shape shift into birds!" Amethyst exclaimed. She immediately turned to Steven for a response, his face was slightly nervous, but why? Shouldn't he be excited about learning a new power? Something was definitely up. Her mind seemed to keep luring back to future vision the more she thought about this, she shook the thought form her mind and glanced over to the two gems.

"I guess that could work, but-" Pearl was cut off by Steven.

"-Wait- Um.." He paused, he tried to come up with a good excuse, he really didn't want to have to do the whole shape shifting disaster again. He was frightened of what might happen, especially if there was a threat at the time while it was happening, "I-I don't know _how_ to shape shift!" He said, not thinking about it when it left his mouth, it was just the quickest excuse he could make out, and boy did he regret it. He mentally cursed himself (Which he did _very_ rarely) for even considering the idea, then they'd have to teach him- wait. How could they teach him in such a dire situation? This was actually the perfect plan! They _couldn't_ teach him so they'd just have to carry him. That hope immediately crumbled.

"Think about what you wanna be and just shake it out!" Amethyst said quickly, she truly did not want to waste time explaining in a mission, they needed to finish their business here quickly before the island woke up. She saw Steven's face grow more nervous as he stepped back a little, but sighed and tried, surprisingly he got it on the first shot...Kind of..

* * *

Instead of turning into a bird he simply grew wings, one bigger than the other, and different colors, one red and one yellow. He tried to fly, his weight holding him down for a second before he lifted off the ground. He acted as if he'd done this a ,million times before, but realized he still needed to act surprised. "W-whoa!" He cried, laughing bit as he tested out his new wings, but inside he was scared what might happen, quick! What do birds hate, if cats hate water then- wait that's it cats! If he could turn his finger into a cat and scare his wings off and then drench himself in water (If he needed to of course) Then that'd solve it!

Steven flew up into the air, he had gotten pretty good with this, making those secret shape shifting lessons with Amethyst were really paying off. (Which yes I know is only cannon to this story.)

* * *

The group transformed into flying animals, Pearl a bird (obviously) well actually a swan, Garnet a bee, and Amethyst a giant fly. pearl noticed Garnet hadn't said much lately, not putting much thought into it however, it was noticeable enough to think about for a few seconds, what was going on in the fusions head? Something told her she didn't want to know, which was odd, normally she'd be all about finding out what the leader was thinking, but this was a different case, and it wasn't just Garnet, the rest of the group seemed to be acting off as well, Amethyst was always seemingly deep in thought when she thought she was alone, she ate and slept less, and she always seemed to be keeping an eye on Steven, which brings her back to her other group member. Steven. He wasn't as carefree and careless as before, and he wasn't surprised at anything, every move they made seemed to be already written down in the boys head, and charted, there were little events that would excite him, but he always seemed to be thinking of a way out of their current situation, and always knew how immediately. Or at least, what not to do.

Amethyst soared lower than the others, and behind Steven particularly, charting his movements to see if he was expecting anything, but no, he seemed completely clueless this time and it was a bit surprising, seeing how everything else he knew how to solve. It was a little scary, and Amethyst missed the old Steven, always with that huge smile on his face, but now it seemed to lessen, his face told Amethyst he was just dying to say something, but something held him back, something that only he could effect apparently, he avoided others more and more, and sometimes even some of the little things set him off, like the gems shards Pearl had the other day made him nervous, very nervous. Amethyst had been spying on him to see if there was anything weird going on with him, she was sure Pearl noticed by now. There was also Centipeedle Amethyst caught him always having a regretful small smile on his face while he watched centipeedle while he thought he was alone. Some may call this, "Invading his privacy" But Amethyst called it, "Being extra cautious, like Pearl." She was surprised how less guilty it made her feel.

Garnet kept an eye on all the surrounding areas, including Amethyst, Pearl, and Steven. They banked down, just barely above a large river, as the plains dipped down into hills and mini canyons. Amethyst on the bottom, barely pressing her wings against the sharp rock, Pearl on the side, just barely ahead of Steven, who was seemingly faster and more agile than Garnet remembered, he seemed to maneuver swiftly and smoothly along thin passageways, and small holes, accelerating in the right air currents, at times his sandle would get caught on a sharp boulder or stalagmite, but he recovered nicely, catching up to the group swiftly and steadily without wavering much. Garnet, like the rest of the group, caught onto Steven's odd behavior and kept quiet to herself, only talking when she needed too, but mostly thinking about what route to take, the best situation where it all ended out okay, mostly consisted of keeping quiet, but there were a few odd ones that stuck out where she alerted the others and, albeit foggy and disoriented Steven told them the truth, Garnet just couldn't make out what he was telling them, it was too far and too deep into the future, it wasn't open enough for Garnet to peek through.

Making their way onto a large mountain the group surveyed the area, taking in the details, their mission was to recover a gem artifact, it was what gave a life force to the nonliving matter, it could do large groups at a time, like, say, a island. It should be right...Ah here! The group circled down into a large cave, and sitting on top of a stalagmite was a gem artifact! It was pulsing purple, blue, and green. Steven touched it, feeling the same radiating heat that the gem hatched to the thin string had, he dug around in his pocket, finding it still there. He didn't bring it out, as it might bring up questions later.

* * *

 _ **And~ Cut! hope you've all enjoyed! This will be another two parter! Remember to review and goodbye~!**_


	9. Cat fingers 2: The Gem Artifact

_**Once again thank you for all the kind reviews, and thank you to all who Favorited, followed, and stuck around too this moment! I hope you stick around even longer, but if not, I hope you have enjoyed! I am sorry I cannot give shout outs as there are too many of you, but I want you to know if I could, I definitely would!**_

 _ **Key:**_

 _Dream/_ _unconscious_

 _'Thoughts'_

 ** _Authors note_**

Story/ regular

* * *

"What's that?" Amethyst asked as she saw Steven rummaging around in his pocket.

"H-huh?" He asked, startled by her question. "O-oh its just some loose change I kept in my pocket." He said, he hated lying, it was what he was worst at, and if he could see himself he bet he would probably be sweating nervously, and fidgeting, with a face full of guilt. Amethyst didn't buy it for a second, but didn't ask any more questions, neither did the others. Steven could tell they were catching onto his strange behavior.

Turning his attention back to the artifact he felt a _pop_ in his wing, he tried to see what had happened and noticed he had another wing. _'Oh no..'_ He thought as another wing appeared on his elbow, his face was full of worry and fear, as was the others.

"S-Steven!" Pearl cried, in fear turning back to her original form, and catching him as he fell back, she examined the situation and looked around frantically to find something she could use. He had to use the tactic, but what if the gems got suspicious and asked how he knew? What would he say then? No, there wasn't time for that, he wouldn't allow himself to be overtaken anymore. He attempted to turn his finger into a cat, as he flew over to water, ignoring the curious looks the gems gave him, flying after him, Pearl now once again a flying swan. Steven felt his finger morph into a cat and he brought it next to the wings, they seemed to cover in fear a little, but, lie the wings the cats were spreading fast too, he jumped quickly into the water, his cat fingers and cat boy slowly disintegrating, and with it his wings.

* * *

Steven attempted to swim upwards, but something grabbed at his shirt, he let out a bubble of air as he tried to call for help. His cried were muffled and hoarse as he was slowly brought down into the ocean.

* * *

 _Steven felt cold water his his back. 'Where am I?' He thought as he sat up. Oh..He instantly remembered this place... He must have fallen unconscious, he looked around, the ground was cold water and had a green tint all around it, it seemingly illuminated the dark vast place. But, this time he saw no Lapis or Jasper, or big scary Malachite. He looked around further, nothing, what was going-_

 _That's when he heard it._

 _"S-Steven?" It was Lapis's voice, Steven rain to the voice, and saw her chained up to a wall._

 _"Lapis!" He cried, he wasn't sure whether or not to be happy or pitiful for the ocean gem. She gave him an irritated look._

 _"Steven how are you here AGAIN?!" She cried, she didn't want Steven in danger here, again._

 _"It's okay! I can't even reach you anyway.." Steven said. "Even if you told me where you were."_

 _"W-what do you mean?" She asked, a look of curiosity crossed her face._

 _"Honestly I'm not to sure myself all I know is I'm back a year or two ago when my gem glowed for the first time ever." Steven said._

 _"You mean you went back in time?" Lapis asked, before sweat dripped down her face again as she kept trying to keep Jasper down. She groaned a little as pain shot up her spine._

 _"I-I think so." He said. "I just don't know how or why.." He said, suddenly he felt himself waking up.  
_

 _"Steven wait-" But it was already too late the dream had ended._

* * *

Steven woke with a start, pulled out of his dream of Lapis he looked around, he was on the islands beach, no more wings or cat fingers, the gems were staring down at him, Pearl was relieved, Garnet was skeptical, and Amethyst was...well Amethyst.

He sat up, giving a small smile at them.

"H-how did you-" Pearl was cut off by Steven immediately.

"It doesn't matter we need to get the gem artifact now, then you can ask questions later." Steven said, Pearl nodded, grabbing Steven as she morphed into a swan, the others did the same, carrying Steven as they flew.

* * *

The artifact was pulsing brighter, Steven guessed it meant it was about to wake up, Garnet stepped in front of him and started pulling on it, trying to release it from its grip. It took three to four tries to get it out of its socket, inspecting it a bit, Garnet sent it back to the temple.

* * *

The gems warped back to the house, Steven sat on the couch, all eyes stared at him, waiting for an answer. "So, how did you know?" Pearl asked. Steven thought to himself, ' _What should I say?!'_ He racked his brain for answers, but upon finding none he sighed, then an idea came to him.

"W-well I just saw Amethyst try it a few times.." He said, remembering her turning into a cat and getting water all over herself. "When she transformed into a cat she got water on herself and instantly turned back, so I figured I'd try that, but this time since cats hate water, and birds hate cats so, I just kinda.." He trailed off. Hoping the others would buy his excuse, Amethyst sure seemed to buy it, Garnet not so much, Pearl he wasn't even sure was listening.

But at least there's no big threat for a while. Right?

* * *

 _ **Welp that's all! I'm running out of ideas for closing chapters so...Bye! Hope you enjoyed!**_


	10. Bubble Buddies

_**Oh man...Please don't hate me by the end of this...**_

* * *

Steven didn't even know where he got the bike. He'd had it for years. Steven rode along in the sand on his "new" bike, hoping something interesting would happen. Today Connie came into town right? He couldn't remember, he guessed it was about time-

speak of the devil. There she was, reading her book by the side of the cliff, Steven had almost forgotten about Connie, he hadn't seen her in forever it felt like, now he got to meet her all over again.

Then a thought struck him the caused tears to prick his eyes. All their adventures, all of their good times. All gone. Connie hadn't experienced them yet, here she was, just as she was a year or two ago and it was painful to see her like this, she didn't know him, but he knew her, it hurt him in a way he didn't understand.

Finally he decided to talk to her.

"U-um hello." Steven said to Connie, she looked up form her book just for a moment, and waved to him. Steven looked at her glasses, that's right she still needed those. A small smile crept up to his face, but what should he say now? "What are you reading?" He asked, shuffling nervously, the same anxiety he felt the first time. His best friend. Right in front of him, and he couldn't even talk to her like he used to.

"It's a book series called Unfamiliar Familiar." She answered, turning a page. Steven remembered reading that book, and how obsessed Connie was with it, it brought a smile to his face.

"The cover looks really cool!" He commented seeing the cover with a picture of Lisa on it. (Honestly I don't remember the cover so I'm just gonna guess one of them had her on it) Connie nodded. Steven sighed, deciding not to go back to his house, he knew a rock was supposed to tumble down and attempt to crush Connie, and he wanted to protect her before it reached her. Connie noticed his bike.

"That bike looks pretty new." She commented, she had that quiet voice, the one Steven guessed as shy, although she didn't have any other friends to open herself up to so it wasn't surprising. Steven nodded, glancing up at the cliff, it was just barely hanging- and...

The cliff collapsed. A large boulder threatened to strike directly on top of Connie. "Huh?" She said, her eyes widened as she saw the large rock, Steven charged up next to her, preparing his bubble, or his shield or anything! He shut his eyes tightly, preparing for the loud crash as his bubble hit the boulder. Nothing happened.

Steven looked up, he was in his bubble, but where was the boulder? Steven looked to his left, and saw Pearl, and the two halves of the boulder on the ground next to her, her spear drawn.

"Steven, are you okay?!" Pearl cried, rushing over to his bubble. "H-how did you...?" She trailed off. She noticed the girl beside him and looked at Steven with curiosity, "Steven, who is this?" She asked. Steven thought for a moment, wait wasn't she watching out from the window? Why weren't Pearl and the others watching like last time?

"Wheres Garnet and Amethyst?" Steven asked, ignoring the question, his bubble still up, he noticed and popped it, Connie was lying unconscious behind him, probably fainted form fear this time, last time she didn't seem to notice, but this time she was looking up at Steven so she must've seen it fall down.

"Their on a mission." Pearl answered, this shocked Steven they shouldn't be going on another mission for a day or two, why were they out?

"O-oh this is C- This is just a friend I met here on the beach." He stopped himself from saying her name, since she hadn't told him and it might bring up trouble if Pearl called Connie by her name and Connie had never told her or him her name. "What's going on?" Steven asked Pearl.

"What- Oh the mission, Garnet said there was someone around beach city that was acting shifty and just decided to check it out, Amethyst insisted on going since she didn't want to be left with me, and it was boring around here anyways." Pearl answered. Steven wondered who the shifty person was. Maybe it was Peridot and she had come early this time around? But why? Steven thought for a moment, he glanced over to Connie.

"Oh right! We should probably bring her inside and help her.." Steven said. Pearl nodded.

"Alright." She draped the girl on her shoulder and carried her to the home.

* * *

Steven wet a rag and put it over the unconscious girls head. He smiled, he missed when they were best friends, now he'd have to make friends with her all over again. Centipeedle climbed up next to Connie on the couch, snuggling between her feet and the end of the couch, acid was spilling over it in large clumps, Steven sighed, unable to lift the sleeping gem monster, it was just too cute...But he needed to, he lifted it up and put it on a large pillow on the floor...which it immediately spilled acid on.

Connie's eyes fluttered open lazily. She groaned, sitting up and rubbing her temples. She looked around, grabbing her glasses to see. "What-"

"You fell unconscious when that boulder fell from the cliff." Steven answered, not letting her finish. He smiled at her, relieved she was okay.

"Oh...Then..How.." Connie trailed off.

"Oh, I blocked it." He said awkwardly.

"With what?!" Connie cried, eager to hear his response. He sighed and let his bubble form he smiled, relieved it worked.

'With this!" He said, grinning, he popped it seeing the shocked face Connie wore and stepped over, closer to Centipeedle. He smiled sheepishly.

"H-How did you-" Connie stopped when seeing the warp pad activate, gaping at the two gems who stood there, carrying...No...Could it be...

Was Steven right all along? Could Peridot be roaming the city..Because what lay in their hands, was a flask robonoid. Steven took a step back, seeing it shocked him, he was reminded of Peridot and how she tried to kill them. A lot. Connie noticed his behavior and a curious look crossed her face. Garnet set it down, speculating something, she stared at him for a moment, before going into the temple, carrying the robonoid with her.

* * *

 _ **And that's it! Also this will not be a two parter, this will just carry on to the next episode, also CONNIE AND STEVEN WILL BE FRIENDS LATER ON I will announce this again next chapter, and I plan to add Connie back into the story in the episode: Beach Party, because one, it'll be 10x more exciting and two, I can't bear the fact of not having Connie in the series, shes one of my favorite characters, design wise, and personality wise. (Course Lapis triumphs over all...)**_


	11. Serious Steven

_**And, here we go! (This was pretty hard to write...) AND YES CONNIE AND STEVEN WILL BE FRIENDS LATER ON EVEN THOUGH THIS IS GOING A BIT SLOWER.**_

 _ **EDIT: Woop! Longest chapter I've made on this story with 3,649 words! (Not counting the authors note)**_

* * *

Connie sat up form the couch, she needed to get back home. Steven knew this and said,

"You can go." He regretted not making much progress with her as friends and half wished he could just do the same thing he did back then. Connie nodded, sitting up and opening the door.

"Oh right, my name is Connie." She said.

"Steven." He responded with a grin. As she left out the door Steven sat down, sighing, maybe he could hang out with Connie some other time, he could invite her to watch dog copter coming out in a few months.. He didn't want to wait that long though...He could just call her up like last time and hang out with her, but she hardly knows him, she'd think he was weird for calling her just based off some random greeting.

He glanced over to the far wall, seeing the robonoid there brought back bad memories, if only he'd been able to catch Peridot that one time...Then maybe...Just maybe things could have turned out different, I mean, how else could he have transported back in time? It must have been Peridot...Right? If not then...Who else knew about him and the crystal gems? Maybe homeworld kept a document on them or something and rumors went around..But still...Could they really transport him back in time from that far away? And why not the others? It was pretty obvious they weren't transported, as they still acted the same as a few years ago. So why him? Did it have something to do with..His mother perhaps?

But still..If they were aiming for Rose why then? Why not a thousand years ago at the war? Or sooner than that? Why now? And why him? It all didn't add up, there weren't enough facts, and he didn't have the Crystal gems to help him through it...Unless...

No, he shook the thought from his mind, he couldn't risk telling them and getting them in danger before the actual danger arrives once again. He didn't even know if the foe behind this was even aiming for him in the first place, it could have been a mistake, but even then there were so many different things this time around, so many different occurrences, like Centipeedle in his backpack, that weird gem on the end of the string, that place under the Sea spire, although many of the same things happened to, but, they shouldn't have...So...Why? Steven shook the thoughts from his head, laughing when Centipeedle rolled over.

It was too bad Centipeedle couldn't be friends with him back then...Or..I guess you could say in the future, just not this one. And now that he thought about it, most of the friends, or at least allies he made never worked out in the end, Centipeedle, Lapis, heck, even the Crystal gems he could never seem to please, Pearl always missed Rose, and Steven was getting the suspicion that she wanted Rose over him, Amethyst he could never seem to be a real friend with because she acted like she was his sister, and could never take the responsibility of being real friends with him, she never goes into detail about herself, and when she does she has a breakdown over why she couldn't be different, and while he appreciated her and they were good "friends" Amethyst could just never compare to a real friend, but to be honest, what actual friend did Steven even have? He guessed it was only Connie. Was that what he was comparing Amethyst to, just Connie? And Amethyst was really a very good friend and he just didn't see it cause she was his "guardian?" Garnet was completely out of the question, she was more of a mom than anything, but Steven never had exposure to a real mom, so he couldn't say much about Garnet himself, especially since she kept herself and life so secretive, just like his real mom. Or at least, Pearl and the others had said when they found her scabbard and Lion.

Actually, the Crystal gems themselves didn't have any friends either. Well unless you count Amethyst and Vidalia. Pearl and Amethyst were always at each others throats. Pearl and Garnet were only friends because they had to be to keep the team together, Amethyst and Garnet never really got along for their own reasons, the team was never really personally close, they just had to be for Steven. Ruby and Sapphire were the only close ones in the group, the only ones willing to be in a romantic relationship, and even then they still fought almost 24/7.

* * *

"Steven." Garnet called as she warped in the home, Steven was busy reading a new comic he'd seen in the stores, he'd already read it five times over, but that didn't stop him. Steven was clueless why she was calling him, what was it this time again? After he met Connie last time what was he supposed to do...? He couldn't remember so he gestured for Garnet to continue as he continued reading his wide eyes told her he was only slightly listening, but went on anyway.

"This is going to be one of your first serious missions." Garnet said, oh...That's what this was about. Of course this time it wasn't his first, he had changed the timeline, now he had been on a few more serious missions than before, he had gone to the island this time around so that was his first real serious mission, unless you counted the Frybo incident. Stevens eyes went starry as he no longer paid attention to his comic. He rushed over to the warp pad as the other two gems came out of their rooms. He had a huge grin on his face as Garnet warped them to their specific destination. He giggled as he felt gravity release its grip in the warp stream, he hadn't used it in so long it was refreshing to finally be able to use it once again. He realized he had forgotten his ukulele! The ghost of a frown appeared on his face, before replaced by another playful grin as he cheered, doing back flips in the warp.

"Steven your gonna-" Pearls voice was cut off as the warp ended and they appeared at the strawberry battlefield. Steven gaped for just a second before gravity set in again, he got a face full of strawberry goo. He tried to stifle a laugh to avoid getting a mouth full of strawberry but couldn't help it. Pearl went over to him and narrowed her eyes at him. "Steven you need to be more careful you could've been hurt!" Pearl said, scolding him. Steven knew better than anyone about that, especially after accidentally sticking his head out of the warp and seeing the warp pad go off somewhere else, but at least he had been warned about Peridot that time. He realized he'd been thinking a lot about Peridot these past few days and was pretty thankful none of the gems could read minds, or at least, he was pretty sure, but he could never be sure with Garnet.

"I know I know." He said waving it off, but felt something hit his hand when he did, "Ah!" He cried when the butterflies started getting in his eyes and around his face, being attracted by the sent of strawberry jam, "Ah their in my eyes~!" He cried, running straight into Garnet who simply waved her hand and they flew off.

"Their just butterflies Steven." She said. Steven laughed nervously at that. Garnet gave him a small smile he sworn was from Sapphire. It had that kind of feel to it. Garnet shook the rest of the jam off as she took Stevens hand protectively. Pearl and Amethyst followed them, Amethyst wasn't paying attention to it though she was busy scanning the strawberries and wondering if they'd be safe to eat, she reached over at one by Pearls foot and she gave her a glare.

"Amethyst don't even think about it." Pearl said.

"Aw c'mon their right there!" Amethyst whined. She reached for it again only to have her hand slapped away by Pearl.

"Amethyst this is serious try to be a little more mature." Pearl scolded. Amethyst sighed

"Ugh your no fun anymore." She murmured glumly. They continued their trek through the strawberry field.

"So many strawberries..They just go on as far as the eye can see! Oh that's what I love about the Earth!" Pearl said, gaping at the pink and read colored fields, Pearl was right though, it was beautiful...

"Oh, but Pearl we need to be more _mature_ ~!" Amethyst mocked. "This is serious Pearl! We can't gape at the delicious beautiful strawberries cause we can't have fun!" She continued, Pearl rolled her eyes.

"It's different! Rose fought for the beauty of the Earth! Not to eat over half of what she fought for!" Pearl said.

"Oh Rose Rose Rose!" Amethyst said, rolling her eyes. "You know your not the only one who misses her! Your just blinded by your love for Rose I bet you wouldn't even care if I ate out the Earth if it wasn't for her!" Amethyst said, Pearl felt her temper rise.

"STOP" Garnet yelled. "We're on a serious mission if you two don't shut up I'm sending you both home and I'll do this mission alone!" Garnet said, then frowned and looked at Steven, "And with Steven of course."

"Absolutely not!" Pearl cried, but shrunk at the fact that Garnet was still their leader. "Steven can't go in with only you watching him, Garnet let's be sensible with this." She said.

"Steven will be fine with me, the only thing I'm worried about is if YOU are ready for this mission." She pointed to Pearl and Amethyst who looked away from each other and blushed.

"Fine. Let's just finish the mission and bring Steven back safe." Pearl and Amethyst nodded at each other, making a temporary truce. Garnet walked on with or without them, not even turning around to see if they were following. Pearl and Amethyst ran to catch up to her, Steven stayed quiet.

* * *

The rest of the trek was silent, until they saw the large diamond shaped thing. There was no clear way to describe it, but it gave off a mysterious vibe.

"This is it." Garnet said. Steven nodded. He looked around as Garnet pulled him inside, Steven glanced at the inscriptions on the wall.

"Stevens the best~!" Steven yelled as his screams echoed through the structure. " _Stevens the best..The best...Best..."_ Steven grinned. "Why thank you temple." He said, doing a silly stance acting flattered.

"Woo go Steven! My turn!" Amethyst cried, hearing her own echos, "Pearl sucks!" Amethyst cried, hearing it echo. "The temple speaks the truth P." Amethyst grinned as Pearl rolled her eyes.

* * *

Steven glanced over the hieroglyphics, he saw a very familiar figure. It was Rose battling a huge gem about her size. "Who..." Steven trailed off, his eyes glassy and expectant.

"Good question Steven!" Pearl began. "This very spot was once a battlefield where the first battles for Earth took place, but even now we don't know what this structure is doing here, we're here to retrieve the gem that powers it and learn more about this structure and where it came from!" Pearl said in her know-it-all voice.

"Yeah, what Pearl said." Amethyst said in her I-know-just-as-much-as-Pearl voice. "Except..." Amethyst trailed off, she was never really in the war, sure she fought in it, but around that time she never really killed many gems, and she never had a true goal or side she wanted to win, she always felt sick when one of her own kind died and couldn't handle fighting against the side that made her. She wouldn't be ALIVE if it weren't for homeworld and she knew it. If only she could've stopped the war then none of this would've happened, there wouldn't be swords and weapons all engulfed in the ground, there wouldn't be broken gems and shards all strewn along the Earth.

None of the gems realized until too late that Amethyst had bumped straight into the small triangle on the platform in the center of the structure, gravity suddenly collapsed in and everything went black for a second. Steven felt a hand pull him up and realized it was Garnet, who was holding the wall and created a large indent where gravity had taken hold, her gauntlets slid down the wall, making the indent longer as large chunks of rock fell down, Steven grabbed Pearls shirt as Pearl got out her spear, Amethyst took out her whip and tied it around Pearls spear, gravity began the pull harder as they began lifting up with Pearl and Amethyst about to be sucked it, Steven held his grip as gravity began to pull harder, Garnet pulled herself down to the floor, clamping her gauntlets on the floor tightly as Steven held onto her shoulders, Pearl help on to Stevens legs and kept her spear out, she felt Amethysts whip loosen on it and she was slowly pulled away from them.

"Amethyst! Hold on!" Pearl screamed, looking from the purple gem to Steven, she let go of Stevens legs as she reached for Amethyst to try and pull her down.

* * *

They fell through the hole in the ceiling as gravity turned and twisted until they were right side up again, Pearl landed gracefully on the floor, with her toes on the ground ballet style. She opened her eyes to see Amethyst face first on the ground and twitching. She gasped as she sat up.

"Ow." She said, "Why did you-"

"That doesn't matter we need to get back up there." Pearl said dodging the question, Amethyst was her teammate and that was priority she had to no matter what, if she'd left Amethyst to die down there she would have failed the team, that was all. Nothing more than because Amethyst was a team member and Pearl was almost sure Amethyst would have done the same...Almost.

"Hey Pearl..." Amethyst began, she couldn't take it anymore she had been playing it off like everything was okay but Steven was just acting too weird. "Have you noticed anything weird with Steven..?" Pearl was shocked by this.

"W-what?!" She cried, getting nervous. Of course she had! But mostly she'd tried to ignore it. "W-well..." She trailed off, biting her lip. "O-of course. He just isn't the same you know." Pearl didn't even realize they'd begun walking. "Every move we make, it's always already expected of him! He's no longer his old self it's like he grew up in a second and we didn't even realize he was already an adult, it's scary." Pearl admitted. Amethyst nodded.

"It's obvious Garnet notices too...But I wonder.." Amethyst trailed off. Pearl glanced over at her.

"Wonder what?" She asked, but she was cut off when suddenly a loud sound was heard, they turned around, noticing they had walked into one of the doorways and it had shut on them. Pearl and Amethyst drew their weapons. Torches were lit along the hallway revealing a blank hallway, Pearl stepped forward cautiously and the tile underneath her began to lower, she withdrew her foot and it remained to its previous spot, a rumbling was heard and the roof began to cave in. Pearl chopped a boulder in half that was about to hit Amethyst, Amethyst threw her whip around Pearls waist, grabbing the end and tugging her forward, Amethyst looked behind her to see the tile she had been standing on had fell down into an inky black abyss.

"Thanks." They both said simultaneously as they ran into the next hallway. Amethysts whip disintegrated as she pulled another one out, giving Pearl some more breathing space (Even though she technically didn't need to breathe, but you get the point)

* * *

"Amethyst..."

"Run."

They saw the large boulder sliding down the ramp at the same time, Amethyst was nearly crushed, but barely dodged, Pearl took the chance to take out her spear and cut at the round boulder, all it did was leave a scratch and a newly broken spear stuck in the large indent. Even though she didn't need to Amethyst gave herself a break gasping as adrenaline rushed through her veins. She felt so hungry, she guessed it was true what Pearl had said,

" _If you eat to much you'll start to feel the need for it."_ Amethyst was starting to see the truth in that. She slumped down the wall, maybe it was true for sleeping too. Pearl rolled her eyes.

"Amethyst.." She began, but realized Amethyst had already gotten up and was heading through to next doorway, admittedly her posture was a little- No this isn't the time for that, Pearl scolded herself.

"Amethyst wait!" Pearl cried trying to catch up to her and realized she had stopped in the next doorway, almost, shaking? Amethyst turned to Pearl, her eyes wide, she pointed at the next room. It was the one they had just come from, the big main room they had fallen in!

"We're...We're back here..." Pearl whispered falling on her knees. "Oh come on!" She cried.

* * *

 _"Oh come on!"_ Steven cried as he pounded on the walls. "How are we gonna-' He was cut off as Garnet pounded her head on the walls, gritting her teeth. Inside Ruby and Sapphire were in turmoil, arguing on what to do next. She felt like screaming, her head was pounding, she drew her gauntlets punching the wall.

"G-Garnet?" Steven cried, backing up, fear built up in his eyes, swimming around flushing out every other emotion. Garnet turned around her teeth still gritting, but she relaxed noticeably when she saw Steven

"I-It's alright." She said stuttering, Steven had hardly ever heard Garnet stuttering, he hugged her leg.

"Don't worry everything's fine, everything's alright." Steven said, burying his face in her leg.

"Alright first we need to find Amethyst and Pearl- No we need to wait...Wait..But..What if they're.." Garnet kept changing plans, Ruby wanted to take action in case they were in trouble, Sapphire wanted to wait it out to avoid getting Steven hurt in unknown territory.

"It's okay! We can go in after them! I-I'll be fine!" Steven said, Garnet was tempted to argue, but the pounding in her head said otherwise.

Garnet touched the triangle just as Amethyst had, once again gravity failed and they were sucked in.

* * *

Pearl was just about to go into another doorway when they heard a soft, "Ow."

"Amethyst-" She was cut off when she saw Garnet and Steven, Steven rested in Garnets lap as she fell down, catching him swiftly.

"Steven!" Amethyst and Pearl cried.

"And Garnet." Garnet said stoically, but Amethyst and Pearl were already helping them up.

"Right Garnet, why are you here?" Pearl asked.

"Because I wasn't just going to leave you here alone." Garnet half lied, Sapphire would, but Ruby was the one refusing to sit and do nothing when half of the team was in danger.

"Yeah we're a team!" He said, grinning. He felt sick again, just like before, he felt sweat appear on his face. "I fell like the room is spinning.." He said, feeling nauseous, the flashback of the ride at fun land appeared in his head.

* * *

When Steven woke up Garnet Amethyst and Pearl were all outside the structure, Garnet held him in her hands, and bubbled the gem artifact.

"H-how.." He trailed off.

"When you said you felt the room spinning I punched the floor, it really was spinning and I grabbed the artifact from within the structure." Garnet ruffled his hair. "Good job Steven." She congratulated. Steven grinned.

"Woo!" He cried, "Uh could you put me down?" He asked, Garnet set the boy down and he did a little dance ending in a heroic position. "I saved the day!" He grinned. The group smiled.

Of course though. This wouldn't be the last time he saved the day...

* * *

 _ **Yay for super long chapter! I had to cut some stuff down just because this ended up being super long, and I didn't feel like creating a two parter that was only like 500 words long, it wasn't worth it. But yeah a little spoiler Connie may or may not come back in the "Beach Party" episode so look forward to that! At least I plan that, I also plan a new arc that I came up with in my head while eating soup! It's gonna be a gem arc, but I plan on it being mostly backstory. So I hope you look forward to that! And if you have any suggestions or ideas now's about the time to put them in cause I'm running out of time to plan in any special arcs or events before the big climax change! (Which may or may not be coming in a huge episode I'm sure a lot of you love.)**_


	12. Tiger millionare

**_Oh...Oh this ones next? I really don't like this one..I know it's going to be a pain to write... SO I'M JUST GONNA MAKE THE MAJORITY OF THIS NOT ABOUT THE ACTUAL EPISODE. (I'm looking for stuff to fit into the authors note just for more words so I don't have to write this...)_**

 ** _OH I HAVE ONE! I'm now in a community for the first time! It's the "Time traveling community" And I'm so proud to be in one for the first time even if it's not all that special. And it shouldn't even be in it because technically this isn't time travel I guess you could say Steven went through parallel dimensions and THEN time traveled maybe? Either way it'd fit a lot better in a "Parallel Dimensions community" Than time travel, even if he did technically time travel in the end._**

 ** _Also! I went back and read the first chapter on my story and I'm very disappointed in myself cause I made Steven too observant and he wasn't supposed to memorize as much as I did on the first chapter so I'm trying to improve on that..._**

* * *

Steven walked awkwardly, goo dripping down his sides as he just barely listened to the two argue about him. "It's okay guys!" He called, and fell over, sticking to the floor.

"He sure won't like it when it _hardens!"_ Pearl cried, Steven looked up at that.

"Wait what?!" He cried, trying to struggle free from the goo he already felt hardening. Pearl and Amethyst had already gone to their rooms though, and Garnet had warped away. Steven groaned not again...

* * *

 _Back to the present/future..._

"Garnet we've looked everywhere where could he have gone?" Pearl asked, letting tears slip down her face. "How could he just vanish?" She cried. Garnet put a comforting hand on her.

"It'll be alright." She said. Amethyst hadn't come out of her room since their last failed search, Pearl guessed she was worried, but probably trying to hide it and come out like everything was fine.

She was wrong.

The temple door opened and Amethyst stepped out, her cheeks rosy and eyes puffy from crying, tears still dripped down and her eyes showed determination that had broken, she held a quivering lip, trying to smile everything off, but failed. Her hands were balled in fists and her fingernails dug into her skin. She stepped out, ready to get something to eat to eat away her sadness, Pearl had never seen Amethyst so upset before. Even after the whole kindergarten incident she was never this upset, even if she didn't show it, now she was practically breaking herself apart, the boys disappearance had taken toll on them all.

The group heard wings and a loud _thump_ as someone knocked on their door. Pearl went to the door, drying her eyes, who could it be? Or what? She slowly opened the door and she was pushed back in a blue blur, she fell on the ground.

"Oh sorry!" A voice called, she extended her hand for the Pearl. She opened her eyes, her vision was shaky and foggy.

"Lapis.." She whispered, batting her hand away and standing up. "What are you doing here?!" Pearl cried, still holding a grudge after almost 5000 years. (At least that's how long I think Lapis was in the mirror for...)

"I think I might know where Steven might be..." Lapis said.

* * *

 _Steven's dream in current fanfiction/past time._

 _Steven fell asleep after a very VERY long day, he felt sleep overtake him quickly as he realized he was in another Lapis dream._

 _"Steven!" Lapis cried, thankful for him to be back. "Please tell me everything!" She cried._

 _"Okay okay!" Steven said, "I think I might've maybe...Gone back in time? Possibly?" He said, shrugging and smiling sheepishly._

 _"H-how?!" Lapis cried._

 _"I don't know I already told you this before!" Steven cried._

 _"I'm sorry it's just really hard to remember when..." She trailed off glancing at her chains._

 _"Well have you heard anything at all from the Crystal gems I need to know how their doing!" Steven cried, Lapis cast a nervous glance back at her chains. She gulped._

 _"I could find out..." She said._

 _"Your going to unfuse..." Steven gasped, realization hitting him like a rock, a big magical space rock to be specific._

 _Lapis nodded, "But I'm afraid..." She trailed off._

 _"That Jasper might hurt the Crystal gems, some kind of alternate me that's still in the future, or you when you unfuse." Steven answered for her._

 _"Or worse.." Lapis said._

 _"Worse? What could be..." Steven knew exactly what she meant the second he finished his sentence._

 _"She could alert homeworld where everyone is and have another huge war started or the Crystal gems shattered immediately." Lapis said. She shook her head. "No I won't let that happen...I'll defuse, but I'll find a way to restrain her, I'll crack her gem if I have to, or even...Bubble it.." She said. Steven felt himself waking up quicker than he expected to this time._

 _"Lapis!" He cried, reaching for her, she didn't reach back, a regretful smile appeared as the dream disappeared in a fury of bubbles and the dream began to waver._

 _Steven saw as Lapis rose up, her eyes shut peacefully and her mouth open slightly, as if she were asleep. Steven continued to reach for her, swimming towards her as a current kept him back, he saw Jasper floating down away from Lapis, Lapis opened her eyes, staring down at Jasper who was struggling against cold chains._

 _"Lapis!" He tried to scream, but got a mouthful of water, Lapis sent a fury of water at Jasper without breaking a sweat, tilting her head to she could see Jasper a little better, she turned a bit of the water to ice until it formed a sharp edge and swam near Jasper, just as she tried to poof Jasper, the dream ended in a fury of bubbles and the only thing he could see in the midst of everything was Jasper's gem floating slowly like a stone down deeper into the water, and then it disappeared along with everything else._

* * *

 _Back to the past/ present Fanfiction_

"LAPIS!" Steven cried gasping, he was glad no one was in the house when he shouted that. The temple door opened revealing Amethyst, he squinted, "Amethyst...?" He whispered, still too drowsy to remember she was going to the wrestling match, he kicked his legs out of the hardened material and stood up, only to throw himself on the floor again to get rid of the rest of the gunk. He followed after her to the wrestling rink.

The announcer announced Purple puma as the crowd booed. Steven winced how could people just be so mean? And how was Amethyst enjoying it so much...It was just..Cruel...

The match went on for another few minutes (Which I don't feel like typing since everyone can just go watch the episode and I really don't like this episode.) as Amethyst came out Steven jumped in front of her with stars in his eyes, Amethyst recoiled back, but seeing Steven there relaxed her.

"Did you-" Steven interrupted her by nodding.

"That was so cool! Your a pro wrestler and everything!" He cried, she nodded.

"Yup." She grinned. "In the ring no one can tell me what to do! It's so much better than home...Promise not to tell?" She asked. The boy nodded, grinning excitedly.

"If I were a wrestler...What would _my_ name be?" He asked, already knowing the answer, although to be honest it was pretty hard to remember the name, it was on the tip of his tongue...He knew it was Tiger something.. "Hmm...Maybe...Oh! Tiger millionaire!" Steven said, stars growing in his eyes.

"Did you just come up with that just now?" She asked jokingly, Steven nodded energetically. "Wow, it took me a week to come up with this." Amethyst joked.

"Really? Your so devoted!" He said, Amethyst grinned.

"I know!" She said, spinning in an egotistical matter, almost like Pearl.

"Really!" He cried.

"Nope!" She said laughing as she ran ahead. She shape shifted into Purple Puma grinning. "Came up with it on a whim." Amethyst said, grinning.

"Knew it!" Steven cried, running up to catch with the newly formed Purple puma and he ended up tripping on a rock. She laughed as he swallowed a face full of dirt, he shuddered at the bitter dry taste, but began running to catch up to her again, she was the only one who knew the way back after all.

It was nice to see the boy excited and back to normal, he seemed to be slowly getting back into the old Steven they knew and loved, which only made Amethyst more suspicious as to why he made the sudden change that day.

* * *

Steven got home with Amethyst later than normal since they'd taken a detour. Steven ate happily on a strawberry flavored doughnut, it would have been better with sprinkles or whipped cream.

"Amethyst do you think they would put chocolate syrup on these doughnuts if I asked?" Steven asked, inspecting the doughnut. Amethyst shrugged.

"Who knows?" She asked. She had long shape shifted back into her normal form, admittedly not really wanting to, but she really wished she could show the boy more about the wrestling ring, but she didn't honestly wanna risk him getting hurt, she knew Pearl'd have a fit and shut down the entire ring, and she was worried about the boys safety...Kinda.

"I wonder if they could make a design on one.." Steven went on imagining different toppings and things to put on top of donuts, his number one choice was to make a cookie cat design out of frosting on a cupcake or doughnut, preferably doughnut, but found it kinda hard to put a design on something with a huge hole in the middle of it.

Amethyst told him to be quiet as she slowly opened the door, the sound of creaking entered the house she hoped if the gems heard it they'd assume it was just Steven.

* * *

For the next few days they continued this routine before Garnet and Pearl eventually found out what was really happening and went to find them when they snuck out for the eighth day in a row. They'd gotten a good scolding, Steven and Amethyst weren't allowed to go back again, just like last time and it all worked out just the same.

* * *

 _ **Yeah...You could tell this wasn't really the Tiger Millionaire everyone wanted, it was mostly just a easygoing chapter I didn't wanna add much action or suspense to this so I left it like this for no particular reason other than I wanna get to the episode "Mirror Gem" Before I forget what I wanted to do this whole time. I only named this Tiger millionaire because I'm naming the chapters based off their respective episode names, nothing more.**_


	13. Stevens Lion

_**Yet another magical friend Steven can be-friend! Also I added more dialogue to this than was originally in the episode just because I thought it fit, no real reason other than that. And I saved this document I swear, but apparently FANFICTON WANTS TO DELETE IT ANYWAY.**_

 _ **EDIT: Happy early chapter because...Uh...I honestly have no idea why!**_

* * *

"It's so hot..." Steven groaned as the sun beat down on his skin. He drank some water he had remembered to get this time around. He looked around, they needed to find the desert thingy right? It was a pillow with a gem in the center if he remembered right. He walked in the desert collapsing under the heat.

"Steven its not that hot." Pearl said. Steven groaned.

"You don't..understand." He said trying to sound tired. "This is how you're supposed to act...In the desert..." He gasped as he took a mouthful of water. Pearl rolled her eyes.

"Come on get off the ground your gonna get your shirt messed up." She said, wiping dust off of his shirt as he got up.

"Oh c'mon P. it's just a little sand~!" She said as she pushed her down a sand dune, Amethyst grinned as she slid down it next to her, kicking up another dust cloud around them both.

Garnet picked them both up and stood them up. "Now is not the time to be playing." She said as she walked further into the desert.

"Steven you stay here where it seems to be safe." Pearl said as she walked.

"But I wanna help!" He cried, but instantly he realized he'd meet Lion here and hoped they'd say no.

"Not yet Steven you've only pulled your weapon...er...Shield out once you still need to learn to use it." Pearl said finally turning around with a hand on her hip. She drew her weapon and cut down a sand pillar that stood behind her that had just formed. "We still don't even know if you have all the powers normal gems do in your gem." Pearl said gesturing to his gem, she withdrew her spear as it turned into sparkly dust and faded. Garnet put a hand on Pearls shoulder.

"Come on, we shouldn't waste time." Garnet stated as she nudged Pearl forward, Pearl nodded and turned back to the desert.

"Don't move from that spot!" Pearl called, Steven heard Pearl and Amethyst have a short argument a ways away. Steven sighed.

' _But, I know how to summon my weapon...I summoned it three times in one day just before I went back in time...'_ He thought as he wiped sweat off his face with his shirt. Steven slumped down on the pillar feeling unreasonably tired. He closed his eyes as he felt himself drift into sleep...Well before he heard a low growl.

His eyes snapped open and he sat up, the crystal gems weren't around so he could say just about anything about anything, even call for Lion that they didn't know about yet.

"Lion?" He called. The low growl stopped. Steven looked around for a tuft of pink fur anywhere, or a big pink paw. He saw the glow of Lions eyes and grinned running over to it, he felt like crying he hadn't seen Lion in forever. "Lion!" He called he buried his face in the pink fur, nearly slipping through his mane and laughing. "Oh..That's right you don't remember me do you?" He asked, still smiling, he patted the lion on its nose. It lied on the ground, not even stopping to make a spot for himself or just to lie down without potentially messing up his mane, he just plopped on the ground. He ruffled its fur. He wondered if anything he'd left in its mane was still there, it was its own pocket dimension so maybe it wasn't affected by the time change. He slowly lifted his hand and placed it on the lion's mane giving it a second to glow and sink into the mane. He slowly began to step forward, stars grew in his eyes as the light danced against the shadows on his skin making the scene look truly mystical he took another step-

"Oh my gosh- STEVEN!" He heard Pearls voice calling, he snapped his head sideways and saw Pearl there, her weapon drawn, the rest of the gems came running in as well, drawing their weapons, Pearl was the first to strike, blasting a bolt of energy at Lion, making it skid back, it growled, getting in defense/offence position.

"WAIT~!" Steven cried, but his yells were on deaf ears as they attacked Lion, the Lion shot sound beams and roars at them that rippled space. Steven jumped on top of lion, sitting on him and drawing his shield ready to defend the Lion, he had a defensive look on his face similar to the one Pearl always gave him if she saw Lars picking on him.

"Steven what are you doing?!" Pearl cried, Steven yelled back,

"Protecting Lion! He didn't even try to hurt me hes just a lovable creature like...Like centipeedle!" It was true the centipeedle had helped them on missions tons of times, but how could Steven be so sure the lion wasn't dangerous?

"Steven..You don't know that!" Pearl cried.

' _I know a lot more than you think I know...'_ He thought, temped to scream that back at her. Steven jumped off Lion and received a gasp of relief from Pearl, he kept his head down, then threw his shield on the ground which soon disintegrated.

Now, completely harmless and defenseless he threw his arms out and spread his legs, attempting to guard the Lion, he sent a glare straight at Pearl and looked her straight in the eyes.

"If you want to hurt Lion you'll have to hurt me to!" He cried, not moving from his position, neither bringing out any sort of weapon. He knew they wouldn't hurt him.

Instantly he wavered, suddenly having doubts as Garnet stepped forward, brushing away Pearl she drew her gauntlets, staring him down, she kept her hands down at her sides.

"Steven." She said, sending chills down the young boys spine. She put her gauntlets on his shoulders staring him in the eyes. "I don't want to hurt you." She said, this made Steven shiver, but he stood his ground, sweat dripping down his face as his glare began to soften. He glanced back at Lion and stepped back form Garnet, setting his back against the lion's fur.

"Why do you want to hurt him so bad?" He cried. Garnet had to ponder this for a moment, of course they wanted to protect him, but were they willing to hurt an innocent creature just on paranoia? Garnet withdrew her weapons and sighed.

"Fine. But keep a close eye on him." She gave in.

"B-but Garnet-" Pearl whined.

"No arguing besides Steven can take care of a pet." Garnet finally said, she knew it was no use arguing with the boy in a time like this. Since when did he get so confident?

Steven sighed in relief, hugging the adorable pink creature. It yawned as it nearly fell on top of him, the lion quickly fell asleep as Steven saw his foot was underneath the lion. He tugged it out not even stirring the lion at all. "I'll name him Lion." He said confidently. Steven noticed Amethyst was holding the desert thing.

"Hey what's that?" Steven asked, pointing to it. Amethyst looked down.

"Ask Pearl I'm sure she can tell you a lot about the desert thingy." Amethyst tossed it to Pearl, Pearl just barely caught it.

"Amethyst you nearly got it on the sand!" Pearl shouted, "If you had it would have built all over again!" Pearl cried. Amethyst rolled her eyes. (Since I don't know the actual term for it and I've looked everywhere I can I'll just call it the desert fortress)

* * *

Steven sat in the house next to Centipeedle and Lion, he grinned, he was so happy to finally be able to have them as part of the crystal gems, Lion always was, but he was glad Centipeedle could this time to. He knew he wouldn't be able to train Lion like a dog like he had tried to previously, but it couldn't hurt to try again right? And maybe Centipeedle could help!

After thinking about this subject for a bit a thought crossed Stevens mind...What if he could heal Centipeedles corrupted gem? Steven looked at the Centipeedle for a moment, wondering what would happen if he tried healing it, it was similar to a cracked gem right? Did he still have healing spit or is it still gone since he traveled back in time...Steven tried it, making sure no one else was around, he licked his hand and touched Centipeedles pincer's it was sleeping, but becoming in contact with something woke it up, Steven saw something flicker inside the corrupted gems mouth, he peered in seeing its gem was flickering and glowing rapidly, Steven gasped, was he gonna be able to heal Centipeedle. His hoped soon fell when the glowing faded and Centipeedle still stood there, drooling acid all over the carpet. Steven sighed, maybe another time.

Steven rolled a ball over in his hands he wished Connie was here, then she could play catch with Lion too. He guessed she might be a Tennis practice today or tomorrow. **_(I'm guessing I honestly have no idea when Connie does Tennis, I have no idea what that girl does all day.)_** Steven sighed he looked over at the ocean wondering if Lapis had unfused yet. Connie should be heading home now the sun was just setting, Steven thought for a moment, so if there was another Lapis then was there a whole new set of Crystal gems too? Obviously that wasn't the Lapis from this timeline and if hes back in the past...Ugh this started to hurt his head...The only conclusion he came up with was he crossed over dimensions rather than simply transporting in time. That mean the time thingy wouldn't work (From Steven and the Steven's) unless it also warped to different dimensions...Warped...Wait..Could the warp pad work? It was a long shot, but... If he could then he could go back home!

* * *

Steven hopped onto the warp pad, Lion nudged his head on Steven's arm, Centipeedle did a little dance, it was obvious they both were curious as to what he was planning. He frowned, if he went back then he'd be leaving Centipeedle behind...The gems might even bubble it because no one could care for it...Steven patted it and looked down at the warp pad, he concentrated, now wasn't the time to think about that. He concentrated on warping and he felt the warp stream activate he smiled, hope filled his chest was he really going back?!

* * *

 _ **I know I'm evil for ending it off here, but you'll juts have to wait till next chapter to find out! Who knows I might be nice and send Steven back early...Or not...**_


	14. Arcade Mania

_**Thank you Lady shadow92 for the amazing idea which I may or may not use because I just come up with all my ideas on a whim! (Yeah I but most of you have guessed that by now..) And I'm finally deciding to type this after finding out a new game is coming out for my favorite series and went on a marathon of it, and also! After seeing some other fan fiction's I have a goal for mine, I want to reach as many words and chapters as I possibly can, I want to reach at least 100,000 words, although not that many I think it'd be a nice goal, and 40 chapters.**_

 _ **EDIT: The guest who speaks Spanish, I've been translating your words in google translate so from what you've reviewed, thanks!**_

* * *

 _Steven warped through the warp stream, he opened his eyes seeing the warp stream flicker and holes ran through it Steven passed his hand through the hole and noticed it felt cold, very cold, he had felt this same cold before..Just before meeting Peridot. Steven waited patiently for the warp stream to arrive at its destination._

* * *

 _After at least a full minute Steven arrived he looked around...It wasn't his home it was...The..The Sea Spire? He was underneath the Sea Spire again...But why? Did this give some sort of answer to who or how he got here/ brought him here. He touched the water, it felt cold, similar to the warp stream he saw the sea spire ripple and tear until it faded into the warp stream again once it completely faded he was warped back to his house, and there they were, Centipeedle and Lion just as he'd left them, which meant there was no way he could warp back to his home._

* * *

Steven sighed there had to be something he could do to take his mind off of home, his real home, not here. He looked out the window, he didn't want to go to the big donut today, nor get fry bits, where else could he go then? He thought for a moment he hadn't gone to the arcade in a while had he? It would take his mind off of it, but honestly he wasn't feeling like the arcade today...Maybe...Hmm...He thought about this for a while whilst getting something to drink.

Steven winced at the sour milk, it was at least a few weeks old, they needed to go shopping... He sighed, wiping his sweat drenched face with a towel. Steven glanced at the clock that read 2:00 PM how long was he in the warp stream?!

* * *

Steven walked along the board walk with Pearl, she planned to go shopping with him out of town. Where Pearl got the money was beyond Steven, but he was just glad to be able to eat something after all that'd happened, well at least get food to eat. Pearl materialized a wad of cash in the palm of her hand and put it in a makeshift purse Amethyst had, "Found" or so she claimed. Pearl rolled her eyes as she saw that the purse had a huge hole in the side, typical.

Pearl arrived with Steven after a fifteen minute walk with several breaks, at the town, Pearl saw the sign had simply written on it, "Amber Town" It wasn't all that special, it was relatively small with a convenience store, fast food place, diner, and shopping mall, no big city special places, there was a neighborhood off to the left on a path that was seemingly a large garden towards the large residents homes.

Pearl strolled down towards the small shopping mart humans called "Convenience stores" except bigger, and let Steven pick what he pleased, while grabbing ingredients for full meals she knew the boy wouldn't pick out, by inevitably want some time or another. She tossed milk and eggs, cheese, butter, small meats, condiments ranging from ketchup to hot sauce, and a few boxes of cereal, she also did some impulse shopping and saw a sweater she decided to wear for coming up new years eve in months. She saw some boxes of food labeled, "Lunch Buddies" Consisting of, two slices of long bread, american cheese, deli meat, and mayonnaise, with a bag of chips and candy for side items, along with cool-aid as a drink. She tossed a few into the cart, also seeing a few building materials a ways off she headed towards the area with tools and building supplies.

It was farther off from the food section, the shopping mart didn't only have foods, but it also seemed to be a whole separate building from the food section. She gazed at paints and wood, remembering she might want to stock up the barn again in case she wanted to do any hands on machines any time soon. _**(Lots of references to later episodes I know.)**_ She put them in the basket dubbed as the, 'shopping cart.' And headed back to meet with Steven to see the items he picked up.

Steven had decided on a few ice cream sandwiches, while he could get them at the Big Donut he decided he liked these better, and chose not to tell Lars and Sadie. Also a bag of chips that he planned to conserve.

After paying and leaving the store Pearl took Steven home, she wanted to leave quickly in case the gem monsters from earlier came back again.

* * *

On the way back Steven's eye caught the arcade, and for just a moment he thought one of the arcade machines flickered dangerously blue, it was almost unnatural. Pearl kept pushing him forward onward home though, so he didn't get a good enough look at the arcade.

* * *

"STEVEN!" He heard his name called and sat up, not realizing he had fallen asleep on the couch. He didn't remember falling asleep, it was a long day at the store though.. "Hey~!" Amethyst interrupted his thoughts yet again.

"Amethyst?" Steven called and looked up to see her handing off the loft or his "bedroom". He turned to face Amethyst a bit better and saw she was smirking.

"Arcade."

"What?"

"Lets go to the arcade!" Amethyst repeated, Steven was shocked. Why did she want to go so badly?

"Why?" He asked, echoing his thoughts. She grinned.

"Because~ Pearls getting mad at stuff falling down into _my_ room once again and of course somehow its my fault! So I wanted to do something fun while shes getting my room clean or whatever, but _GOOD LUCK PEAARL~_ " Amethyst shouted in the temples direction, obviously calling down to Pearl to aggravate her further. "- And I remembered there was a new arcade opening up so~" She continued, and paused again.

"You want me to come with..But why?" Steven asked, she could obviously go by herself, Amethyst faltered then, a sad look crossed her face for a second. Steven looked up to face her, his vision was a little blurry, once it cleared Amethysts face was back to normal again.

"Cause' I need you to ask Pearl for money for tokens!" Amethyst half lied. Steven kept an eye on her, blinking a few times before slowly nodding, what was wrong with her? She looked so... Lonely.

Steven recalled the image of her upset look, it looked...Perhaps longing, as if she wished he'd said something else- actually... _Anything but that_ her face looked just as it had in the kindergarten, just more grief stricken. She was less annoyed and hopeless, as if she hated her entire being- no it wasn't that, it was almost if she directed that look at _him._ Could it be that...Maybe she'd figured it out just by asking that question? But how? What- He had only asked why. She looked at him with heavy despair and it hurt him just to look deep into his friends eyes like they were pools of darkness, although his vision was blurry, he understood quite well what her expression told him: " _You can't keep this secret forever._ " That's exactly what it told him. It was true. That why- it could have been the trigger, normally he wouldn't have asked why he'd have just gone for it, that must've been what set her off. She noticed how different he became in a snap, as if he'd grown a year in one night, which he technically had.

"Amethyst..." He said softly, she was so close. So close to figuring him out. If she could find the right opportunity she could definitely call him out. But it was still so early! How had he broken so quickly, how had his facade cracked? Was that how it worked? One falter; one screw up and he could no longer hide it? The predicament tore at him, tugging at his mind in a spot he just couldn't reach to bat it away, it nagged at him; and that meant Amethyst was winning.

 _She wanted him to break._ If he broke, that would mean she would finally know what was up with him, and he knew how much this was bugging her not knowing how to help, that feeling of helplessness; if he was honest with himself he would've done the same if the roles were switched.

* * *

Steven opened the door to the arcade, slipping inside with Amethyst who was already by the counter, waiting for Steven to pay for the tokens. She grinned as he set down about twenty dollars and some change, giving them a total of sixty tokens, they split it evenly, thirty each.

Amethyst flipped a coin with her fingers as she decided what game to play. she glanced at the 'Meat meat mania' machine brightly glowing with neon colors and shrugged, ignoring the fact that the machine nearly blinded her eyes. She grabbed a ham and began.

Up, down, left, right, repeat. Amethyst did this three times over before level two started up. Down, left, right up, down right left, up, up right left down...This continued for a few minutes before Amethyst became addicted, shaking the meats with the multicolored symbols, finding herself really good at it, and only for two tokens!

She eventually got to level seventeen before she lost, slipping and tripping over her shoe..somehow. She guessed it was for the best; but started over anyways, putting in two tokens.

* * *

"Amethyst!" Steven cried before seeing Amethyst insert two tokens into the machine, she only seemed to have about twelve left?! "Y-you need to stop!" Steven called as she started up another round.

"No way! I wanna beat my old high score!" Amethyst said whist shaking the meats. "Unless you wanna play along?" She asked. Steven started to say something, but noticed a smirk in her face. She was planning something.

It was true, Amethyst was planning something, she had decided that if Steven beat her in this game and knew all the moves and won as though he knew what exactly was gonna happen, then her theory was correct, if not, well then she'll find out if it happens.

* * *

After a short round Steven gave up, he lost three times in a row, seeing how addicting the game really was, he slammed his head on the arcade machine and groaned, walking around dizzily and Amethyst caught him, smiling, a look of relief crossed over her face. "Ow." He said, rubbing his forehead.

"I knew it.." She said softly, loud enough for Steven to hear. Before he could respond she hugged him tightly, lifting him off the ground and spinning him, "WOO! I WON~!" She cried, doing a dance as she dropped Steven, grinning whist doing so.

His secret was at least a little more safe, but still there was that looming doubt and fear right over his head, with just one more mess up or hint Amethyst would find out, or even worse...Garnet or Pearl. There was no where he could turn, no one he could turn to, he was stuck, cornered. And who knew when Amethyst would cut the rope that held his secret, toppling onto his mask, and his facade would break.

And they'd all know it.

* * *

 _ **All right, firstly a lot of hints to upcoming chapters, and a lot of symbolism! I FINALLY finished this chapter after about three days of putting it off. And gosh dang it do I hate doing filler, more particularly boring filler, sometimes I like a cool down episode, just relaxing, but I really can't stand episodes like this, so that's why I decided to mix it up and add a bit more depth to just how much Amethyst knows just in case you didn't already get the idea, even though I'm 70% sure you did.**_

 _ **EDIT: The gem monster SYOC is now closed, I only had a few submits (Like two) but I only used one because I had much more than I intended to make on my own.**_

 _ **EDIT AGAIN: Crap I just realized the game was called 'Meat Beat Mania' Thank you Gamelover41592 for pointing that out!**_


	15. Giant Woman

_**Hurry alert the fan base and shippers! It's time for Opal. Also in case you were wondering: psammokinesis is the ability to manipulate sand.**_

 _ **Oh my gosh...50 reviews already?! How is...Why...I'm completely...Just..Wow. I'm at a loss of words honestly I just checked the reviews and there were 57 reviews!? (Note: This was written in advance just after Bubble Buddies was released) You guys really want this fanfiction, I'm proud of myself ^^**_

* * *

"NO~!" Amethyst cried when she saw that Pearl had one. Then she giggled, "Aha here it comes-" She was pelted with water balloons and fell to the ground laughing.

"Steven is this really necessary?" Pearl asked, rolling her eyes at the chuckling Amethyst.

"Yeah! Now the moves really matter!" Steven said, his hand slipping and a water balloon hitting Pearl, she winced as cold water spread and dripped down her hair and face. She shook her head, trying to dry it off.

"But it's checkers! Every move matters!" Pearl said.

"Sounds like someones being a sore loser." Amethyst taunted, Pearl grew red in the face.

"I'm not a sore loser, I just one the game!" Pearl said, she gestured the the board and all of Amethysts checkers on her side of it. Pearl knocked over the pieces she had arranged into a stacked tower. This caused Amethyst to laugh louder.

"Aha oh man." Amethyst said as she slapped her knee.

"Ugh your so immature this is why we never form Opal." Pearl groaned, Amethyst stopped laughing, she knew the _real_ reason Pearl didn't want to fuse with her, but decided to keep it to herself.

"We don't form Opal because your uptite and egotistigoal- egotisticel- egotistic- know what whatever." Amethyst crossed her arms. huffing.

"We don't form Opal because your messy and immature!" Pearl retorted.

"Opal?" Steven butted in, pushing the two away and looking at them with wide starry eyes. "What is Opal?!" He cried, excited for the fusion to be back in the picture.

"Opal is an amalgam of our combined magical and physical attributes fused into a single entity." Pearl stated as she used psammokinesis to manipulate the sand, demonstrating a fusion dance. "Like so." Amethyst crushed the models in a puff of dust.

"Except I don't dance like _that."_ She commented mockingly. Pearl groaned.

* * *

It was just as he'd remembered it being, Garnet says something about the heaven beetle, he gets a rock, and their at the sky temple thing. Steven hummed his fusion song, hoping he'd get eat by that bird again...Wait..No that was worded wrong.. Whatever.

He shook the thought from his head as he climbed up the stairs.

"Can you guys form Opal now~?" Steven asked, sighing, he had went over it in the house too while speaking to Garnet, he caught the slight curl in her lips showing that she enjoyed seeing Steven so excited about fusion.

"Steven we already went over this we only fuse in dire situations, does this look like a dire situation?" Pearl asked, as a goat came out of nowhere and bit her hand.

"Dire?" Amethyst and Steven repeated the word in unison. Pearl groaned. Steven grinned at the goat.

"I'll call him Steven Jr.!" Steven let stars take up most of the room in his eyes as he patted the goat, it let out a cry and skipped along the path. He followed after it grinning. Amethyst and Pearl shot each other concerned looks.

* * *

 _"All I wanna do~"_

Steven and the rest of the gems, and the goat all headed up the large cliff, climbing was surprisingly difficult with a goat on his back.

" _Is to see you turn into~"_

Pearl "slipped" on a rock and sent crumbled pebbles down on top of Amethyst, earning a glare.

 _"A giant woman~"_

Once reaching the top of the cliff they encountered a large lake, Pearl elegantly skipped along the rocks toward the shore when Amethyst popped out of the water, sending her crashing into the water.

 _"A..Giant...Woman..."_

they encountered a bridge next, walking along it Amethyst bumped into Steven causing the bridge to wobble and shake, Steven steadied himself before wildly jumping on it as it swerved.

"Amethyst!" Pearl began to scold, which turned into a massive argument.

 _"Oh I know it will be great, and I just can't wait~"_

They next hiked up a cliff...Yes...ANOTHER cliff and Steven continued singing,

 _"To see the person you are together~ If you give it a chance you could do a huge dance because you are...~"_

They reached the tip of the cliff, and Steven was just about to finish as the goat wailed.

" _A giant...Woman...~"_

Steven reached the end of his song noticing how shortened it was, he frowned, he still hadn't gotten over the whole Malachite incident, and now fusion was back into his life again. And it terrified him.

* * *

 _ **(Quick authors note: It was originally supposed to end here, but I lengthened it because its only 800 words long, and left out way too much... End of authors note!)**_

* * *

Steven ran along the path towards the beetle palace. He wondered if he'd get eaten again. Then wondered when the last time he had a cookie cat was...Maybe this afternoon? His stomach rumbled which gave him enough confirmation that he wanted more, he was down to his last couple and wanted to savor them..And yet he couldn't stop himself from eating at least two or three a day.

Pearl stopped for a moment, noticing something glimmer inside the tiny beetle temple. She looked inside, it was..very nice for a beetle. She saw something glimmer on the tiny bed, and she picked it up, just barely fitting a finger in the window, she pressed it up against the wall, and after a while she got whatever it was to balance on her finger and slide out.

"Whoa! It's got little beetle bongos!" Steven said, nudging Pearl over so he could take a closer look, not noticing Pearl examining the glimmering object in her hand.

It was a simple purple gem shard, and very small, it looked as if it had been cleaned recently or at least shined, it caught the light perfectly inside the temple making it shine brightly. But where was the beetle? Surely...It couldn't have been taken by whoever had the gem shard...Right? Amethyst noticed Pearl was looking intently at something in her hands and walked over.

"Pearl?" She asked, waving a hand in her face. Pearl looked up at her with a half irritated look, but mostly just deep in thought, which, to be honest was normal for someone like Pearl. Amethyst laid a hand on her shoulder and crouched down to look at whatever Pearl was holding, sneaking glances at Steven who was wrapped up in the temple. "What is _that_?" Amethyst asked with pure curiosity, not the fake curiosity that bled through her words when she was questioned about one of Pearls belongings ending up in her room, often she just shrugged, but had that tone when she answered that clearly meant the exact opposite of, "I dunno." Pearl often took that as Amethyst took her stuff.

"I don't know." She replied, keeping her voice low so she wouldn't worry, even though she was seventy percent sure he wouldn't react, only give a fake face, but even then it was after a few moments as if he _forgot_ to react to what Pearl said. And it was honestly..frightening. He'd changed so much, and she couldn't express how much this meant to her, she'd said it just as much as the others, and she was sure the others were turning it over in their heads too right now. She made a mental note to have a meeting in the temple while Steven was asleep to discuss this situation.

Steven glanced over at Pearl and Amethyst, Pearl had gotten up and was putting something in a purse that came from who knows where, she probably materialized it. Amethyst was going back over to slouch on the wall when they heard a defending cry.

"Steven Jr?" Steven called recognizing the goats wails. Steven quickly ran over to it when he saw a giant gem monster, looking suspiciously like a bird fly up into the air he cried as he ran into the conveniently placed shelter that sat next to the tiny temple. "Guys! This is the perfect time to form Opal! It's okay you can do it!" He cheered. "Please don't fight!" He added, the gems caught note of this addition and nodded, determined obviously if Steven told them this it must be urgent, obviously since he seemed to know what would happen if they _did_ fight.

Pearl and Amethysts gems glowed as they bowed. Pearl began her stance, doing a simple ballet pose and beginning to come closer to Amethyst, leaping into the air until she felt Amethysts hand against hers, and was brought down by her.

Amethysts started out a little different than she'd planned, instead of mocking Pearl like she usually did she did a simple spin and a pose, she spun out of it, taking Pearls hand as she slowed down and bringing her to the ground, whilst stopping Amethyst from spiraling into the wall, they honestly did need to be serious or else Steven could get hurt.

They heard it in his voice.

Just as they simultaneously thought that Steven could get hurt, and how urgent he sounded, their bodies were engulfed in a bright light.

"Opal?" He gasped as the roof broke in and the two became Opal, she turned to Steven, blocking the birds giant beak and summoned her bow quickly, backing the boy up as the bird attacked again, Opal sent a arrow spiraling into its mouth, it exploded on impact, mainly caused by it overpowering and couldn't hold it anymore until it released it all in a simple movement. The bird recoiled before turning into mini versions of itself, Opal took Steven and jumped out, landing on what looked like a cliff that they had been on a half hour ago or so. "The heaven beetle!" Steven shouted, reminding Opal, she panicked where could it have gone? Steven also looked for Steven Jr, it had evaded the attack supposedly this time around and was munching happily on-

The heaven beetle! Steven ran over to it, nearly stopped by Opal, who noticed the bird again and shot it, disintegrating the gem monsters.

Steven pulled the heaven beetle out of the goats mouth and ran over to Opal, presenting it with a grin on his face, Opal smiled.

 _"A giant woman..."_ She sang lethargically with a hint of amusement. Stevens face fell.

He instantly was reminded of Malachite.

* * *

 _ **Poor Steven, he just can't catch a break huh? I meant for this to become a very light hearted episode, but I was thinking of how Steven is just talking about any fusion as a giant woman and...Yeah this came out of it. Hope you look forward to the next chapter!**_


	16. So many Birthdays

The gems walked inside of Amethysts room, Pearl visibly winced at the mess, sticking her nose up at every other pile of trash. Amethyst gasped grinning as she saw the moldy burrito from months ago. She shot a mischievous glance at Pearl.

"Amethyst that was from five years ago!" But it was too late she'd already eaten a piece of it. Steven turned around from the sight and caught sight of a picture with the gems and...His mom. "Whoa..You guys look so old." Steven said with fake surprise. Garnet took note of this, she had been more observant lately of Steven.

"That's because we're much older than humans ever live! Of course it was old!" Pearl said, remembering the fun times with Rose and their adventures back over 5000 years ago.

"Does that mean you never age?!" Steven cried, grinning. Pearl smiled.

"No no! We don't age, but we can still die-" She was cut off as Amethyst groaned and fell to the ground. "But not from food poisoning." Pearl commented, rolling her eyes.

Steven thought about this, could Amethyst get poofed from something as simple as this, he caught a bit of worry in Pearls eyes, but was unable to see Garnets to confirm if she could, if Garnet had some kind of worry on her face, even for just a second it would confirm she might. Steven thought about it a little more before shouting,

"Do you guys ever have birthdays?" He asked, knowing the outcome this would bring, but still, he could control it this time and he would make sure they would have fun birthdays.

"No, it's not our way." Garnet said a little too hastily. She shrugged, Steven nodded, a grin plastering over his face.

"Then I'll make sure you all have the best. Birthdays. Ever!" Steven pledged. The boy grinned, stars forming in his eyes as he went to his dad's shed to gather materials.

* * *

After gathering all the needed materials for the birthdays Steven decided he'd have it inside this time, as later on it would become foggy and he wouldn't want the gloomy atmosphere to ruin the party, he hung up streamers and balloons all along the ceiling and stairs, handing Garnet a birthday cape and crown. He also saw something on the couch looking like a small purse with a strap, he was tempted to peek inside it, but remembered Pearl had been wearing it and would scold him for going through her things, and then blame Amethyst for being a bad influence.

He thought back, or in this case, _forward?_ To when he'd found out Garnet was a fusion and decided to use red and blue balloons for Garnets party, saving the purple and pink ones for Amethyst's and the yellow and white ones for Pearls. The streamers didn't have as many colors, just red, blue, and yellow, Steven just picked those at random, putting them up in a pattern. Red, blue, blue, yellow, blue, red, red, yellow. He also covered the couch in a thin purple sheet with presents he had just gotten out of Amethysts room, colored to match the respected gem.

For Amethyst was a purple present with a bright pink bow, inside was a small sculpture which Pearl had agreed to help make, or the wrestling ring Amethyst always, or used to always go to, mostly because it was the only thing he should know about Amethyst that gave her individuality around this time, but there was one thing he was proud of about it, the sculpture was edible, even if it wasn't he was sure Amethyst would have ended up eating it, but now it at least tasted good.

For Pearl was something he remembered she said she'd liked, well she'd shown interest for it many times and he always remembered this one thing she'd liked, pie. No, not consuming pie, just the process of making it, so he gave her some baking appliances and an apron along with some pie crusts and several different pie ingredients, like sprinkles, whipped cream, pudding, cake mix, and so on.

For Garnet he honestly had no clue what to give her, so he simply got her a punching bag and some gym equipment since he knew she liked to be working a lot. He also got her a pillow with her face on it, just because, this time he let Sadie do the design and found her being fairly good at it.

Steven beamed a grin at all the preparations scanning everything and then allowed Garnet in. She looked at everything and Steven saw the faintest smile appear on her face before changing to stotic, he guessed it was because of the red and blue balloons, although she had thought it was pure coincidence how it resembled Ruby and Sapphire it was perfectly planned to suit her.

The cakes Pearl had also prepared, taking great care into detail and not even letting Steven look at it in fear of him eating it, she herself found a great desire to taste it, which she admitted, baffled her to no gazed at the many designs, scanning over each of them, Amethyst of course wolfed it down, Steven noticed people coming, and also that Amethyst had already eaten the first cake and was going for seconds, and quickly stopped her.

Steven saw almost the whole town was here, Greg, Sadie, Lars, Sour cream, Onion, Jenny, and a few others he had no desire to list off any others as just, 'the whole town' he guessed was good enough. He quickly scanned to see if Connie had showed up, he had invited her, but it took him almost a full minute of staring at the invitation before he mailed it off pondering whether or not it was actually a good idea, so with the knowledge that he invited her he continued scanning, and every time a new person had entered the beach home he had instantly turned his full attention to who it was, but to no avail. He sighed, maybe she was busy, he couldn't remember if Connie had tennis practice today or not.

After a while he gave up looking, throughout the whole experience he noticed that they had moved to Amethysts party next, switching out about half of the balloons and set the cake on the counter. Before Amethyst could wolf it down Pearl, Garnet, and Greg all started cutting pieces of cake and setting it on a platter for people to eat.

Steven was genuinely surprised so many people had come, it wasn't really a big event he had simply ask a few friends to come just so it would be more lively and he guessed his friends had brought other friends.

* * *

After they cleaned up everything, everyone having gone home and about half of Pearls cake and half of Amethysts cake left they put it in the fridge and cleaned up the party decorations, Steven sighed in relief, it was an uneventful day this time, but who knew how many of those he'd have left once the gems found out..? It wasn't fair...It wasn't like Steven wanted this to happen...So why...

* * *

Pearl led Garnet and Amethyst to her room and began, "Alright lets just jump into the subject at hand. Who else has noticed Stevens odd behavior?" Pearl asked, the two were mildly shocked by this, but they knew eventually it'd become more apparent that the situation at hand was becoming more and more of a problem, and of course since they were his guardians they would notice. That was their job after all, they'd never failed him before, and now it seemed like they already had somehow.

The duo nodded in unison.

"I think..I think I might have found something that may lead us to the answer." Pearl began, rummaging in her pocket and pulled out a shining purple gem shard. "I found this in the heaven beetles temple, Amethyst has already seen it." Pearl commented, bringing the shard over to Garnet who merely gasped, but regained her stotic composure.

"You said you found it in the heaven beetles temple correct?" Garnet asked. Pearl nodded.

"Do you know anything about-" Pearl was cut off as Garnet raised her hand up and pocketed the shard, she left the meeting and went to her room hastily.

"What was all that about?" Amethyst asked, Pearl simply shrugged and sighed, going deeper into her respective room, Amethyst went the opposite direction and through the temple doors.

* * *

 _ **Mostly filler, nothing too special, but I went back and added the meeting scene just to give the chapter something worth reading.**_


	17. Lars and The Cool Kids

_**Now for an actual authors note unlike the beginning of last chapter! This episode is mainly gonna be from the perspective of Lars, although not in first person, it's going to follow him mostly. I also like to think of Lars as the type to constantly have to reassure himself and have a bad sense of self-esteem ever since this episode, since he tried so hard to be better than he was, it made me think maybe he didn't see himself as much more than another common face and that's why he wanted to be with the 'cool kids' or maybe I'm just overthinking, but it's a fun thought to think about once you consider it.**_

 _ **The main problem with this chapter was trying to really get Lars's character on point, I can't really pin down what Lars's character actually thinks or how he reacts, other than trying to fit in or be cool, so it was really hard to portray his character, I hope I did well though.**_

 _ **Aside from that, this chapter won't totally be from Lars's perspective I'll have some Steven thoughts farther down, but very few as I want to have a chapter just on what Lars notices about Steven's change.**_

* * *

 _ **THIS WAS POSTED EARLY BECAUSE OF THE NOTICE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE CHAPTER.**_

* * *

Lars leaned against the back wall, pushing his foot against the wall and hovering in the air for a second with only one foot holding him up, before gravity took its hold back and pushed him back, he sneered, scoffing at the idiocy of some of the people walking by, talking and laughing on the streets totally oblivious to the others around them just looking for peace and quiet.

No matter how stupid people thought Lars really was, he was a lot smarter than people gave him credit for, or at least he thought he was. He just...had some sort of common sense handicap. Yeah. He saw Steven running up to the cool kids, seeing a sudden shocked look for a moment as he ran into them, Lars rose a brow, wondering why the boy seemed so upset, Steven was never upset...Right? He had never seen the boy upset in his life to be honest, sure there was the occasional cry over something small, but that was just his personality, he had never seen him truly distressed before.

He thought about asking, but decided against it, but c'mon the cool kids were right there! How could he? They'd think so little of him. Wouldn't they? He shook the doubt from his mind, he really hated that voice, the conscious that always tried to convince him of another option, gave him doubts, strayed him from his path, he always tried to shove it away into the corner or his mind, just try and shove it all behind the present and try not to let it break through and effect him in any way, he could make his own decisions, not needing any right or wrong, it was just whatever effected him then was what mattered in his eyes.

Lars snapped back into reality, remembering Steven, he sneered, the boy had that goofy grin on again.

"Hey Lars you should come along!" Steven shouted, Lars paid attention now to the conversation.

"Come along where?" He asked, curiosity in his voice. Steven paused.

"Just where ever! They invited us!" Steven called, gesturing to Jenny, Sour cream, and Buck Dewey.

* * *

"Steven don't act lame in front of these guys!" Lars harshly whispered as he got into the pizza smelling car. They drove for about an hour, stopping at various places to comment about and/or visit the place. They neared a big hill with a marsh with a mysterious fog and moss covering it, Lars caught Stevens eyes widen and he shuffled nervously in his seat, fidgeting around.

"Steven you okay?" He heard Jenny ask, Steven gave a brisk nod, pressing his lips together and trying not to make any noise for some reason, he shuffled more in his seat as they neared the hill, pressing his eyes together as he heard Jenny say, "Hey we should check out the lake here! It's be awesome to swim in!" She called as she rounded the cliff.

They all got into their trousers and in Jenny's case an extra under shirt, and they jumped in, Lars attempted to follow after them, noticing how heavy the fog was, he thought his shoe had gotten caught on a rock or something because of the additional weight suddenly added to him, he looked down seeing Stevens shocked and tear streaked face as he yelled,

"Don't~!" Lars rose an eyebrow at this.

"Ey' get off me man!" He shouted, but looked up too see the teens had gotten stuck underwater and spotted the moss, he yelped, taken aback and fell onto the damp ground, Steven stepped up out of the marsh just in time to dodge a piece of moss about to climb up his leg, since when was Steven so agile or predictive? "W-what is this?!" Lars cried, Steven had fallen down next to him whilst escaping the moss.

"It's some magic moss my mom planted!" Lars noticed how pained the boy sounded, cutting off Lars's next statement, he had never seen the boy so upset, it made him feel guilty. He hated feeling like that, he tried replacing it with anger and trying to crush down any other emotion that tried to bubble up. He heard the boy spouting something at him about the top of the hill and the moss and he toned it out replacing it with the harshest words he could think of, refusing to feel guilty, "This is all _your fault_! Now I'll never be friends with these guys all because of your- _WEIRD MOM!_ " There, he'd said it, waiting for the boy to sniffle and tear up like he always did, but he opened his eye to see a sight of pure anger and shock cross his face, a look he had never seen on anyone before.

At this moment he knew he'd screwed up badly.

"What do you know about my mom...I DIDN'T EVEN GET TO KNOW MY MOM!" Steven cried, going on, but Lars tuned it out. He recognized something in the boys voice, it was a sense of familiarity? Not in the sense that Lars had heard Steven say something like this before but more...That Steven had gone through this kind of thing before? The anger seemed to be directed at not only him but something else, Lars normally didn't catch stuff like this, but it was just so off putting...It was hard not to notice it. It was obviously a look Lars had never seen before...So it's not like Steven had been treated like this by anyone else in town, nor had Lars said anything this hurtful before so what was with the tone in his voice. Steven was definitely different, but the last sentence he'd said really off put Lars.

* * *

Steven took in a deep breath, pondering whether or not to say his next sentence, but he needed to teach Lars a lesson, to show him that Steven wasn't the idiot Lars took him for. He needed to show Lars that he knew what was really going on.

"You only care about yourself. You don't even realize the other problems people are facing around you!" Steven burst, this was of course directed at the whole time travel incident, but he meant every word of it, Lars really did push people back, no matter how other people reacted Steven was sure Lars would somehow brush it off and try to make it up to them with a quick apology, but he didn't want to _embarrass_ himself in front of others so he did it quickly and quietly. And it proved that Lars didn't mean it in the slightest. Of course Steven had been easily fooled by it back then, but after a while he caught on to Lars's charade, even if he faked not noticing it, but that all ended today, he wouldn't let Lars get away with it this time, it was too deep, and Steven meant it too much, it pained him to think that he'd missed this opportunity last time.

"Like what problem would _you_ have?" Lars asked with a sneer, Steven caught the suspicious tone in his voice, and hopeful gleam in his eye that he hoped Steven would enlighten him on the situation. Steven froze what could he say next?

* * *

 _ **I know I should make this longer...But I really want to end this on a cliffhanger...Sorry but it's just too good an opportunity! I wanted to add the same emotional depth the episode had to begin with, but add the whole time travel ,dimension hopping kinda situation to the mix, along with some insight of how Lars's character will be played through, throughout this story, give me some ideas on how to portray Lars's character well, because I'm clueless on how to play his character right, he doesn't get enough screen time to really have a definite reaction to everything and there's no way to really predict what he's thinking.**_

* * *

 _ **EDIT: Alright, so this is REALLY important for a future chapter, I won't give out too much information because of spoilers, but which would you guys prefer backstory over a character? Or little memories and scenes hinting to their backstory, so basically a few short memories telling you most of their backstory, or the whole thing written in a couple of chapters. This is also why it's underlined!**_


	18. Onion Trade

_**The third chapter I've made tonight...I should really get some sleep...Nah who really needs sleep...I think I do.**_

 _ **EDIT: This is another take on Onion trade, instead of doing it the normal way and just making it mostly filler...I decided I'd not do that since I think it'd be boring to read, as well as boring to write. Plus this was a really good idea for me because I needed this to add a specific item into the story, well one I've already written about, but I also just need multiple of that item, I've already shown it three times now going on four.**_

* * *

Steven went home with an unsettling feeling in his gut, he had just barely made it out with his excuse...

* * *

 _Flashback..._

 _Steven sighed, "It doesn't matter now, we need to get that moss to the top of that cliff!" Steven felt his anger rising, he knew he was being suspicious, but knew it was the only way Lars would take his mind off the subject and not probe him for answers. They both got into the pizza car quickly, dragging along the suffocating teens. "Lars, can you drive this thing?" Steven asked worriedly, remembering the last time he couldn't drive this type of car._

 _Unfortunately_ _though before Lars could answer they drove straight into the cliff, they quickly turned their attention to the three in the back, hauling the teens up the cliff, trying to get there quickly before the moss covered them whole. Steven smiled in relief as they reached the near top, and after a few seconds the moss bloomed as the clouds passed and the sun shone through, out of all the things he'd ever witnessed, in all of his adventures, this had to be the most beautiful sight he'd ever seen. It was a sight he'd never forget, even up until he was taken back in time, he had still remembered this moment. He noticed Lars was looking at him, examining him. When Lars saw Steven looking he broke eye contact._

 _"I'm sorry.." Came the mumbled response. Steven smiled a bit, Lars was a total jerk sure. But if he were the one to be the first to figure out his secret, maybe Steven had misjudged him...Even if only a little bit._

* * *

Steven closed his eyes, he hoped Lars hadn't caught on to his secret, if Lars did then that could be huge trouble, especially to a big jerk like Lars, he would be the type to blackmail the boy with his secret. Wouldn't he? Thinking back on it Steven realized Lars wasn't completely like that, not really one to threaten people or do bad things, he just made wrong choices sometimes.

Steven realized he had stopped walking, he lifted his foot to see his pant leg was caught on a stick sticking up from the sand. He tugged it free wondering when he had stopped walking, he picked up the stick and threw it into the ocean, it went a pretty long ways away till sinking. He tore his gaze from the ocean and glanced around, wondering what to do, he could go to the arcade again. Then he thought about playing with his old toys, or "guys" for the official term. It would definitely take his mind off of the situation at hand, he walked forward until he felt a tug at the bottom of his shirt. He looked behind him to see Onion.

"H-hey Onion." Steven greeted, uncomfortable with the young...boy? Standing next to him. Honestly Steven was clueless to what Onion was, gender wise, and species wise. He could be a she for all Steven knew. Onion just pointed to Stevens pocket, Steven was confused now, what did Onion want? Steven searched in his pocket until he found a smooth cut surface, Steven pulled it out, eyes widening. "A-another-" Steven cut himself off looking down at Onion.

"H-how did you know I had this?" Steven asked. Onion simply gave him a blank stare and pointed at the shard, gesturing for Steven to hand it over. "N-no!" He refused, tugging away from the weird humanoid. Onion frowned, giving Steven a look of almost anger and jumped for the shard, Steven dodged out of the way, since when was Onion so fast? Onion charged forward, knocking Steven down and causing him to drop the shard. Onion picked it up and ran.

"Onion~!" Steven cried whilst running on the beach, noting to remember the rock there that he had been caught on before and jumped over it. Onion turned to face him, a grin appearing on his face. Steven glared, running faster in an attempt to catch him. Steven rounded a corner and glanced around, seeing no sign of Onion. He heavily gasped, what did Onion want with a gem shard?

* * *

The yellow gem shape shifted, a grin plastering on her face, out of the tiny humans form, she had seen the kid around the other one with the shard and decided to take on that form, she clutched the gem shard tightly, ' _Don't worry...I'll get the rest soon..'_ She thought.

* * *

 _ **This was a painfully short chapter, my only excuse is that I did this just before I went on a school trip that went overnight so I couldn't finish, and when I got back I had no ideas to continue the chapter as I left it.**_

 _ **EDIT: 101 reviews :o you guys are awesome I don't even have words. ;w;**_

 _ **EDIT EDIT: JUST TO BE CLEAR I DO NOT SUPPORT THE YELLOW DIAMOND IS ONION THEORY THIS IS A COMPLETLY DIFFERENT THING.**_


	19. Steven the Sword Fighter

**_HAPPY WINTER BREAK! MERRY CHRISTMAS OR WHATEVER YOU CELEBRATE~! ^u^_**

* * *

Steven went home, this was either the second or third time he'd seen those gem shards, he really couldn't remember how many times, his brain hurt too much from everything happening. He sighed, out of all the gem shards he'd found he couldn't even keep one, one he somehow broke, the other was stolen by Onion, and if there was another one he couldn't remember what happened too it, he didn't wanna think about that right now though. He had just gotten Lonely blade, the new one with English subtitles. He sat on his bed with the rest of the gems below him, jumping on Garnets surprisingly sturdy Afro that was able to hold him.

Sitting through the movie a second possibly third time was starting the bore the boy. He turned over, stiffing a groan, trying to act interested , but his mind was elsewhere. He thought of theories and futures that might connect to the gem shard, and noticed something, the first gem shard he found had a string attached to it, the one he found yesterday didn't.

"Look at their form.." Pearl grumbled, going on about how unrealistic it was. "If you want to see a real sword fight come talk to me." Pearl added amidst her constant grumbling, she noticeably made that statement louder and more audible. Steven sighed.

 _"I can't believe I'm doing this..."_ The boy thought when he gave Pearl a curious excited stare, stars in his eyes, he touched Pearls face, getting her attention.

"Right now?" Pearl asked, he nodded.

* * *

Pearl warped into the sky arena. Smiling as distant memories arose when she took every step, as if the soft clouds were projecting memories every time she stepped on the cold tile. Pearl did a little twirl as she got into fighting position, drawing a sword from her gem.

"Alright, in order to give a proper demonstration i'm going to need a sparring partner-" She cut herself off as Steven rose his hand- which was instantly brought down by Garnet.

"-Luckily I have the perfect candidate right. Here." Pearl paused between words as her gem glowed, giving off a faint blue aura for a second, before projecting a slightly transparent blue tinted version of herself. She let a smile work its way into the corner of her lips as she glanced over at Steven, she was confused when she saw his facial expression.

Fear. She expected the boy to be excited, grinning at the new discovery. So why wasn't he? She had the sneaking suspicion it was connected to his odd behavior.

* * *

Steven saw the holo-Pearl project and fear spread across his facial features, he had bad experiences with it, first poofing Pearl, then nearly making Connie into a warrior dedicated to him and willing to give her life up. Although that was mostly Pearl's fault no matter how much Steven refused to believe Pearl would do such a thing, despite having seen it with his own eyes.

Steven glanced over to Pearl who was giving him an odd look, instead of giving awe Steven tried to act shocked and in the moment, so the shift wasn't as noticeable between his facial features. He heard Garnet hum a tune of suspicion and knew he needed to be more careful.

"Steven? Are you all right?" Pearl asked, Steven let a grin spread across his face and stars form in his eyes, he nodded hastily, even though he was scared for Pearl and what would come. "Alright, then lets begin." Pearl said, a satisfying smile creeping along her features.

"Nerds!" Amethyst yelled just as Pearl lunged forwards and the duo of spectators shushed Amethyst into silence.

* * *

Pearl steadied her weight, leaping into the air and pulling her arm back, letting her sword just barely rest against her shoulder, she turned and swung her sword at the holo-pearl who merely ducked under Pearl, she turned and let her feet agilely hit the ground with little pressure against her feet, she ran towards hologram Pearl, and ducked under her tall legs, using this as her chance to stab her from behind, the hologram merely spun around and blocked Pearls sword with its own.

Pearl, noticing the sheer power and strength being added to her opponent, backed up a few feet, before using hologram Pearl's sword to boost her into the air and flip over, plunging her sword into the back of the hologram, leaving behind a trail of particles.

"Like so." Pearl said, and gasped when feeling a sudden pressure against her waist. She looked down seeing a smiling Steven hugging her.

"You were amazing!" Steven cried, Pearl gave him a smile and a pat on the head.

"Well one does try their best." Pearl said, shrugging and letting her sword dip down, she let it disappear in a flurry of clouds and sparkles. Pearl summoned another transparent clone of herself and began instructing Steven.

"Alright, the best way to show you now would be on the lowest difficulty-" Pearl said, just as hologram Pearl began,

"Training mode initiated: Level one begin!" It said as it began a fighting stance. Pearl readied her own sword and gripped the hilt tightly.

"Watch and stand back Steven, watch me carefully alright?" Pearl asked, Steven nodded, his eyes threatened to shut tightly as he remembered the last time, it was all his fault that she had been poofed.

"Parry, parry, thrust!" Hologram Pearl began, repeating the line over and over.

"Do you see what I'm doing with my feet Steven?" Pearl asked, Steven had his eyes narrowed, threatening to shut tightly as he hoped for the best in anticipation, as long as Steven didn't distract her-

"Steven! Pay attention! You were the one who wanted to do this so badly!" Pearl cried, Steven widened his eyes, gluing them to Pearls lesson. "Steven, you need to focus, are you tired?" Pearl asked worriedly, turning from the fight and seemingly not even paying attention, and yet was still able to hold of the hologram, Steven began to speak up to tell her to look the other way, but his voice died down in his throat, Pearl rose an eyebrow and began to ask what was wrong when-

* * *

He couldn't look. He refused to look. But when a sudden weight tumbled over the young boy he was forced to look up. "Pearl?" Steven asked, seeing the gem still here. She didn't poof. But Steven still felt the wind, and saw the clouds passing by, he shielded his eyes from the strong gust. Who-

His answer was right in front of him. He felt Pearl get up and he looked just below her feet. There was a bright orange and yellow octagon cut gem lying there. And next to it was six purple gem shards, all aligned with a string attached to the one at the top.

* * *

 _ **Well...Long story short I've been anticipating this moment, I literally have been planning this since the start and I'm so glad I finally finished it and wrote it down.**_


	20. Steven the Sword Fighter II: Yellow

_**This chapter is gonna be so fun writing... ALSO HAPPY HOLIDAYS!**_

* * *

Steven picked up the yellow gem, leaving Garnet to pick up the shards.

"Garnet what did you do with the gem shard?" Pearl asked, looking in Garnets hands. Garnet shook her head with a sigh.

"I bubbled it, but when I checked earlier it was gone." Garnet answered. Steven looked up, shocked at what Garnet had just muttered.

"You found a gem shard?!" He cried, not caring about if she questioned about him knowing about the shards or not. Garnet looked as if she were going to say something, but just shut her mouth and nodded.

"It doesn't matter now, now we just wait for the gem to reform and question them." Garnet said, looking down to Steven for a response, he merely nodded.

There were more pressing matters than to act shocked over a gem reforming. So Steven just bobbed his head up and down nonchalantly.

* * *

Hours passed, until Steven lost track of time, he began dosing off when he heard a light hum and the tip of his fingers grow warm, the heated feeling spread through his palms and for a second his hands lifted off the couch, a bright light shone and the beam curled around his fingers, pouring onto the couch and through the spaces between his finger tips.

Steven opened his eyes and saw the yellow gem that was resting in his palms a second ago was now levitating in the air he gasped, it was around midnight at least and the dark beach was now being flooded with luminescent light. Steven shielded his eyes for a moment as the thin shapes and ovals of a body formed before his eyes, slowly grouping together and melding along with color, flooding from its core. Pale almost orange skin spread along the veins of their arms and filled the white skin, clothes forming just as color flooded its chest, and grew down to their legs. Flowing out were ruffles and slowly a dress formed, breaking apart from their legs as they formed, and boots covering it, color grew along the recently sewed stitches and glued on buttons. Their shoelaces the only thing remaining white. Their hair grew in long strands and laid elegantly on their back and down to their knees, before two thick strands pulled up and tied along the side of their head in pony tails, with two bright yellow bobby pins sticking in their scalp, attached to long ruffled orange bows.

Their entire body finished forming and they fell to the ground, hands first and soon after their knees, they were obviously female and her eyes were pale and glittery, and seemed to shine no light within, it was like if light dared to reflect in her eyes it would be swallowed up and mixed with the pale yellow.

She had her gem on one of the orange bows in the center, she took it out of her hair in a swift motion leaving the bobby pin inside, and two long transparent blades grew from each side, she twirled it around before sticking it next to Stevens throat and glaring.

"Who are you?" She cried, her voice was soft, but demanding, Steven spoke in stuttered words,

"W-who are you?!" Steven shot back, making the yellow gem flinch.

"If you insist...My name is..." She paused, as if having to think for a second, Steven saw her flinch a bit in...pain? "Ciritine." She answered, in a monotone voice. Steven opened his mouth to speak once she gestured for him to go on.

"Steven, Steven Universe." Steven greeted, extending his hand to the gem. Ciritine took it reluctantly, Steven felt a pulse of energy once she touched him, she tightened her grip for a moment, but relaxed about the same time the pulsing calmed. "Why..." Steven cut himself off, if this gem were to find out he was from the future... "-Haven't I seen you around before?" Steven asked, the gem opened her mouth to say something, but stopped herself and began again.

"I'm new here." She simply put. Hm, that's weird why wasn't she acting as hostile as before? And he'd never seen a gem use that kind of grammar, well except Amethyst, though he didn't know many almost all of them talked with a certain...Accent you could say...But not exactly, it was always proper and not much slang, they tended to use older words, but often they weren't the kind you'd hear your neighbor saying, or a person you see on the street, they were always too... Polite and formal you could say, civilized for a better term.

But this gem almost...Spoke like a regular human you could say, not like most gems. Was it just pure coincidence that that was how he had heard all gems speak? Unlikely.

Ciritine gave him a look of curiosity and shuffled a little, contemplating what to say, "U-uh..." She muttered, obviously uncomfortable in the silence. She stopped when centipeedle tugged on her leg. "Huh?" She said, looking down and shrieked, "W-W-W-WHAT IS THAT?!" She screamed, Steven hastily covered her mouth.

"Ssh! They'll hear you!" He pointed to the temple, she visibly calmed down and batted away the boys hand. Steven waited a few more moments before picking up centipeedle. "We need to find a better place to talk.." Steven glanced around before his eyes landed on the temple door.

* * *

The boys house was strange, Ciritine couldn't see how someone could live so close to the ocean! She let the boy take her hand, Steven. Yes that was his name, she let him tug her over to the large door, covering her eyes with her hand when the pink gem at the very top glowed along with under his shirt, the boys grin widened and he pulled her harder towards the door, she tugged the other way, begging for him not to run her into the temple door, but he pulled her in and before she knew it she was enveloped in a bright pink light.

She glanced around the interior of the place, and let out a cry when the door disappeared into fluffy clouds, why had she just let him take her into this place! Now she'd be stuck and starve! Worries clouded her mind until the boy pressed a soft hand against her shoulder. He visibly flinched at the sudden coolness of her arm, she forgot about that, she stepped back.

"Where..Are we?" She managed to choke out, Steven grinned.

"My moms room!" Steven said happily. Ciritine winced, he...No...He couldn't be...

"Oh." Ciritine said. passing over clouds with a soft finger. She shouldn't be here! She should be on her mission! Right now she needed- "Ah! Where are her gem shards!" Ciritine cried, Steven winced.

"U-um...First calm down then-" She wasn't having any of the boys excuses.

"No! I need them now!" She cried. "I can't waste time or else-" She heard the boy sigh, and then cry out,

"Room! I want Ciritines gem shards!" Steven waited a moment, Ciritine opened her mouth to argue more, but in front of him appeared a bubble, inside were- yes! The gem shards! "Why did you need these so badly anyway?" Steven asked, Ciritine ignored him, chuckling softly, she saw him in the corner of her eye visibly wince and step back, nearly falling through the clouds underneath.

Ciritine popped the bubble, arranging the gem shards together, all six, perfect. She sat them until they all made a diamond shape, all fitting perfectly, she touched the two middle shards and hoped this would work.

* * *

 _ **Yeah...I really love cliffhangers don't I...**_


	21. Steven the Sword Fighter III: Purple

_**First three part chapter! Hooray! ALSO HAPPY FIVE HOURS TO NEW YEARS (Or new years where you are) HERE'S A SEMI-EARLY CHAPTER!**_

* * *

The six shards all glowed, melding together and Steven gasped, why didn't any of this happen before? The gems shards formed a diamond shaped gemstone, with the string looping around like a necklace, around it a body formed, a purple pink beam eluding from it making Steven shield his eyes, and within seconds a figure was standing there, faster than before by a long shot. The gem had purple and brown hair with a pink hood, that slowly mixed with a pink as the shirt, just attached at the back, barely visible. It was long sleeved, and separate from the lower part making it a skirt, it was a warm violet, with a pink bag just handing down to the top rim of the skirt, and hanging from her shoulder, she wore white and purple alternating striped socks, and regular dark purple flats, and a pink sword bag with a gleaming silver sword falling out, there was also a pale purple gem hanging from her neck that changed tints and shades of purple frequently.

In a moment she grabbed the sword by the blade and tossed it, waiting a moment before catching the hilt and assuming a fighting stance. Her eyes were a pale silver, and were the polar opposite of Ciritines, they shone brightly, making it hard to tell if her eyes were really silver or just a very pale purple.

"Moonstone!" Ciritine cried, hugging the gem making her drop her blade. She smiled warmly, giving Steven a cold glare just before returning the hug. "I saw a gem shard on the beach and I went to search for the others and then I found him and saved his friend from getting poofed and then he gave me back the rest, which I by the way stole just so you'd be back and YAY!" She hugged Moonstone tighter, making her chuckle, she nodded.

"Alright, calm down." She looked to Steven who was awkwardly watching. "You." She pointed. "Where are we, and-"

"I'll fill you in." Steven said, but kept to himself a thought, he was not going to tell them anything about his transport in time, he glanced over to Ciritine.

"Well..." She murmured. Did Ciritine know something?

"Do you know something?" Moonstone said right on cue with Stevens thoughts.

* * *

"Basically you're on Earth, and you're in Beach city inside my mothers room." Steven began, receiving a wince from Moonstone. Probably the most emotion he'd gotten out of her. "And right now you _really_ shouldn't go outside the temple." Steven said cautiously, in a hushed voice. "Also, centipeedle is a gem monster, I thought all gems knew about that Ciritine." Steven glanced over at Ciritine who flashed him an antagonizing look for a second.

"Not on Homeworld. We don't have gem monsters there." She replied, Moonstone shot her a confused stare.

"What are you talking ab-" Ciritine stepped on her foot causing Moonstone to let out a cry of pain.

"Later." Ciritine whispered softly.

"Oh so your from Homeworld?" Steven commented. Ciritine hastily nodded.

"Yep! Indubitably!" She shot a pleading look to Moonstone who jumped in.

"Y-yeah we're from Homeworld!" Moonstone cried, then added in a hushed whisper, "Since when do you even know what Indubitably means?" Ciritine shrugged in response.

"I dunno I heard it in-" Ciritine cut herself off quickly. "Homeworld!" She added.

"You're bad liars." Steven said with a chuckle.

"Hey I'm trying here!" Ciritine shouted back.

"She means we're not lying." Moonstone said with an antagonizing look. That shut the duo up quickly.

"So, will you actually tell me who you two are?" Steven asked, Ciritine and Moonstone glanced at each other before nodding.

"Another time, promise." Ciritine said. "First I want to explore Earth a bit more." She said, a longing look in her eyes. "I miss it.." She said softly, just soft enough that Steven didn't hear but a distant mumble. Moonstone gave her a nod.

"Ah, I never introduced myself, I'm Moonstone, sent to Earth as Ciritines partner." Moonstone greeted, extending a hand.

* * *

"So what are we gonna do? Just hide out here? I want to explore Beach City!" Ciritine after a good ten minutes of talking. Steven contemplated this, he could show her around Beach city...But he didn't want to risk the gems freaking out. Would he be able to hide them in Lion?

"I dunno, it's just that...If the gems see you they'll freak out." Steven said after a few moments of silence, Ciritine curled up on a cloud and began to sleep. "You sleep?" Steven asked, Ciritine slowly nodded.

"Yeah." She simply put, she didn't give much information, she just dozed off quietly. Moonstone laid down, but kept awake, sneaking glances at Steven every now and then.

Moonstone untied Ciritines hair and bunched up her bobby pins and bows, she retracted the blades and shoved them in her bag.

"How did you retract her weapon? Can't only Ciritine do that?" Steven asked curiously. Moonstone winced.

"Well...It's not really 'her' weapon per say, more like our species of gem don't necessarily have a weapon..." Moonstone said. "We're given an artificial one to protect ourselves made from pieces of our gem." She pointed to a thin white line over Ciritines gem, and the six white lines that covered hers in a cut pattern.

"Huh...Did it...grow back?" Steven asked, noting the white line instead of a chipped off piece like he would've expected. Moonstone nodded.

"Our gems are different, they can regenerate because their part of us, unlike your species of gem whose gemstone is a whole separate form, it's also why when we regenerate often our gems...I guess you could say power down, they no longer do anything, and often they're vulnerable, unlike yours where if you were to regenerate it would pulse signifying a sort of life coming from the gem." Moonstone explained. Steven nodded. "I used more of my gem when creating my weapon...I wanted to protect Ciritine." She said, softer this time.

"Why?" He asked after moments of silence.

"Why what?" Moonstone asked, shuffling in her spot on the cloudy floor, she fumbled with her hood, pulling on a loose thread.

"Why are you different, are you like kindergarten gems? Manufactured and that's how the species was made?" Steven asked, stars in his eyes, motivated to learn about this new culture.

Moonstone nodded, "Yes actually, we were made by homeworld, similar to kindergarten gems except...There's one difference that I don't feel comfortable sharing at this moment." Moonstone said. "I'd rather Ciritine be awake for that, and trust you more, I tsill know nothing about you." Moonstone added.

"Well, at least now I have some more information...Hey... Any chance you know a gem with time travel ability?" Steven asked. Moonstone cocked her head to the side.

"Maybe, why?" She asked, intrigued.

 _"STEVEN?"_ He heard Pearl yell just outside the temple door.

"Room! I want to go outside of the room, the _real_ outside." Steven commanded, soon enough a silver door with five gems appeared an he walked through, "Stay put, don't let them see you." He told the duo.

* * *

 _ **And that's the end, fairly short chapter, but with plenty of content, I planned to make this a longer chapter, but I'd rather not spend too much time on one chapter, I prefer to only work on one for a few days before ending the chapter on a cliffhanger and leaving it at that.**_


	22. Lion 2: The Movie

_**Enjoy~**_

 _ **EDIT: Steven bomb 4 is finally over...Not I want to do a Peridot arc of my own...This gives me ideas...Lots of ideas...Well that's one way to get me back to writing this story!**_

* * *

Steven went through the door, leaving the three gems shocked into silence at the counter.

"Steven...When did you learn to do that..?" Pearl asked, half brimming with joy that he was learning about his mother, even by just walking into her room, and half scared to death about how the boy learned this, _who_ the boy learned this from actually.

But Pearl knew the answer. It had to be that gem, something to do with her, just the gem itself was just...odd, it showed no signs of life, no pulse or heat radiated from it, nothing. It was like...It just, well died. Pearl frowned, the boy stuttered.

What could he say? There wasn't much he could do here, if he admitted it he'd be in big trouble, if he didn't he'd still be in big trouble. Suddenly the door behind him glowed a bright rose colored pink and opened up in its usual rose pattern.

"I taught him. I was listening in to your conversation." Said a cool calm voice. Steven turned around to face Moonstone and then saw a bright glow in the corner of his eye, he turned and glanced just for a moment at the hurling spear, a bright white, not fully formed and heading straight for Moonstone!

"Moonstone!" Steven cried, jumping in front of her, summoning his shield and letting out a breath he didn't realize he was holding. Moonstone has shut her eyes tightly, her hands protectively shielding her face, and one of the strings on the bag holding the sword came loose, leaving the blade dangling from the bag and touching the floor ever so slightly. Moonstone tightly gripped the blade, a thin drizzle of blood running down the blade. Moonstone opened her eyes wide and wiped the blood off leaving a red streak and she yanked it from the bag, tossing it into the air and grabbing the hilt, leaving the sword right side up with a red streak at the very top.

The sword glowed a strange pink hue the moment her fingers clamped around the hilt of the blade, the sword enveloped her in the same aura soon after and she charged towards Pearl.

"Moonstone!" Steven cried again, but the gem didn't hear him. She slipped underneath Pearls legs and went straight for her back, but a purple whip wrapped around the gems petite body and tightened, knocking the breath out of her, she wheezed, falling onto her knees and clamping her hands over her mouth. A thin trickle of blood fell onto her hands, she quickly wiped the blood from her chin and whipped around to face Amethyst, the gem cut the whip in half, just loosening the whip enough for her to breathe. She took in gulps of air at a time, stepping close to the wall for support.

A thin duel sided blade whipped through the air, a yellow glow emitted from it and a orange bow sat in the center, the transparent blade flew before Moonstones eyes making her halt completely and she followed the blade with her eyes, and it smashed into the wall, creating a small explosion of dust and debris, and the occasional yellow particle.

Everyone turned their attention to the gasping gem outside of the fight range. "Moonstone stop!" Yelled the attacker, when the dust cleared Moonstone rubbed her eyes.

"Ciritine..." She mumbled, and dropped her blade, her face shielded by a shadow and she fell against the wall, gasping in breaths, leaning her back against the thick painted concrete wall.

Ciritine walked into the center of the fight, giving each gem a disappointed glare. She picked up her bow, retracted the blade, sticking it in her hair, and fixing the bobby pins, all in a single motion.

"What is wrong with you guys!" She yelled, her face with pure anger, even towards Moonstone who winced under her cold glare.

"She hurt you. And she was about to hurt the boy." Moonstone insisted causing Pearl to blush and anger spread across her features.

"I would never hurt Steven!" Pearl cried, "I was wondering how he learned to open his mothers door!"

"When a gem asks things like that in the tone you used it means they're looking for a fight." Moonstone insisted, drawing back her stance into a fighting position, her hilt of the blade rolling across her palm, and the sword just barely balancing. She gripped it tighter, before relaxing and letting it baleen more as she noticed the bright hue dimming. She sighed, after a moment or two, and shoved the sword back into the bag, tightening the strings and letting it dangle on her shoulder.

"No! Haven't you heard of scolding! I-its what parents do!" Pearl cried, she was on the verge of tears. "I-I-I would never-" Pearl stopped as Garnet threw her hand in front of Pearl, forcing her to back down.

"An unknown gem just showed up, got poofed saving Pearl, and Steven has just shown a new ability by means we don't know, now there are two gems inside our home who we don't know, and Steven acting odd lately, can you see the reason for hostility?" Garnet asked in her monotone voice, Moonstone slowly nodded, sitting down and taking off her shoes.

"I'm sorry." Moonstone and Ciritine muttered in unison.

Steven stiffened. They did know. He could have guessed, I mean he had lived with them for years.

"Hey...Steven...He's been acting weird right?" Ciritine asked. Garnet nodded nonchalantly. Ciritine turned to Steven. "I'll talk to you later." She whispered, then turned and headed out the door with Moonstone.

* * *

Steven closed the door, "Hey you said...You wanted to explore Earth right?" Steven asked, Ciritine nodded. Steven grinned. "I know just the thing!" Steven pulled out his phone, tapping on the cool touch screen and waiting for it to load, it buffered for a moment before showing a video of an odd dog with what seemed to be a helicopter blade on top?

 _'What on Earth..."_ Moonstone thought whilst snatching the device from the boys hand. The video pulled up, she waited for it to start, several disclaimers popped up. The video played showing several cliche fight scenes and explosions, a typical movie for someone like Steven, but Moonstone didn't exactly see the appeal, meanwhile Ciritine was starry eyed and completely enveloped in the children's movie. Moonstone smirked, of course Ciritine would love this stuff, Moonstone sighed, if Ciritine liked it then Moonstone knew better than to argue. So she'd have to follow along and get Ciritine tons of popcorn and junk foods for the theater, not that she minded, she had easily mastered materializing things from her gem. So she guessed she had unlimited money, but tried not to think about it much like every other gem.

"CAN WE GO SEE IT?!" Ciritine shouted making Moonstones ears ring for a moment.

"Are you trying to make me deaf?!" Moonstone cried. Ciritine shrugged, wearing an ear-to-ear grin.

Steven grinned, if he couldn't go with Connie this was the next best thing, but he certainly wished he would, he missed his friend. Connie was his best friend and he promised himself that he'd not forget about her...But...

"Well?" Ciritine asked, hand son her hips, "Are we gonna go?"

* * *

Before he knew what was happening they were all riding Lion and he was convincing the pink lion to go through the portal it had just created.

"Lion c'mon! We need to go to the movies! And don't bring me somewhere other than the movies!" Steven commanded, giving the lion a light slap on the back before doubling over in awe as the Lion fell on its back adorably, Steven rubbed its belly playfully in an attempt for the Lion to play with him.

"Aw... So no 'movies?'" Ciritine asked, trying out the word. Steven shrugged.

"Depends on what Lion wants to do- ah!" Steven cried when Lion rolled over on top of him. "Lion!" Came the muffled cry from underneath the animal. Moonstone giggled.

The pale gem nudged her foot against the Lion who growled in response, Moonstone scowled.

"Lion! Move!" Moonstone yelled, picking up the Lion by its scruff and tossing it off Steven. She sighed, Lion growled in return, biting the back of her dress and hauling her on top of it, and doing the same with Steven and Ciritine. It created a portal and jumped through in one swift motion.

* * *

"Oh no." Steven murmured as he realized where he was. It wasn't like last time with the armory instead he was brung too the kindergarten.

Moonstone gasped, Ciritine clutched her partners arm tightly, stepping in front of her and taking her bow out of her hair and letting the two thin blades extend from the ruffles. She twirled it with her fingers and protectively guarded her friend. "Why did you bring us here?" She yelled in a demanding voice, similar to the one she had when she and Steven had met. Ciritine had an odd yellow glow to her eyes, contrasting the normal pale yellow that always hid her emotions in a calm way, except for the few times her eyes lit up when she was excited.

Moonstone tightened her grip of Ciritines hand and stepped up next to her, drawing her blade from the sword bag on her back and Steven witnessed the bag gleam away into tiny sparkles, Moonstone visibly winced as her hold on both her friends hand and the hilt tightened dangerously. Moonstone turned her gaze over to a nearby hole and peered inside, raising an eyebrow at this, and continuing down the line.

"Where are all the quartz?" Moonstone eventually asked, pulling Ciritine along with her, she eventually let go of her hand, however still stayed in eyesight of Ciritine, knowing how bad she'd freak out if Moonstone left her side for a extended amount of time.

"O-oh well.." Steven glanced around, as if making sure the gems weren't around."I'm not sure actually the only one I know of that's still around is Amethyst, but the rest I assumed got k-killed in the war.." Steven hung his head over the word 'kill'. He didn't like the word, not one bit, but he knew it was plausible.

"Oh." Moonstone said, but kept quiet to anything else she may have been thinking to say. Ciritine shot a worried glance at her and sighed.

"C-can we just go already...It's eerie and cold here." Ciritine said with a light shiver. The lion however was nowhere to be seen.

"We might have to walk..." Steven said in a low voice that was laced with dread. Once they left the kindergarten safely, a certain green gem was about to begin the experiments. It was only a matter of time before everything would repeat itself now, and the boy would have accomplished nothing, both to the green gem and the half-human's ignorance.

* * *

The three gems all made their way along the paths, making sure to keep hidden from people to avoid questions. Moonstone hopped along the wires connecting the telephone poles and had a surprising amount of agility, she didn't slip up except once when a car roared by and she hid behind one. She jumped from wire to wire, spinning a bit and seemed to be having a blast, she turned on her heels and bounced along the wires, building up stamina on one jump as the wire bent low to the ground, several telephone poles stretching to maintain the hold, and Moonstone took a jump as high as she could, spinning in the air and missing another wire, landing beside Ciritine.

"Having fun?" Ciritine asked with a smirk earning a playful shove from the purple gem. Steven chuckled at how sisterly they acted, he almost envied how close they were, but he had the gems so he was fine. Wasn't he?

If he was honest he was never as close to them as Ciritine and Moonstone were to each other.

With that thought he saw the "Beach City" sign come into view, as well as the city lights, and nearby a familiar looking pink fluffy lion lounging around in the sand.

* * *

The three warped to the theater and asked for tickets, earning a weary look from the lady standing behind the booth. Moonstone and Ciritine gave her matching innocent smiles and handed her the money, stepping inside the the noisy theater, tickets in hand.


	23. Beach Party

_**It's finally time to get Connie back in the story! Just as you all hoped! Also Sorry SneaselxRiolu for not adding her in last chapter like you wanted.**_

 _ **Also! New information about Ciritine, or I guess what's going on, but not really directly... AND IF I HAVE TO WRITE PIZZA ONE MORE TIME WITH MY "Z" KEY ON MY KEYBOARD NOT WORKING I SWEAR...**_

* * *

"This is why you shouldn't let random gems do whatever they want!" Pearl scolded Steven he fidgeted nervously. Long story short they had all gone out for fish stew pizza, but Ciritine got a little to wrapped up in battling gem monsters to pay attention to the world around her, and ended up wrecking everything. And of course Steven knew exactly how to fix this, much to Pearls dismay.

* * *

Steven set everything up. Again. The heat from the sun really beat down on his neck every time he bent over to pick up something. Steven glanced over to Ciritine who was resting under a tree, breathing heavily, he looked around there was no sign of Moonstone either. Ciritine was a roughly a pale gray-yellow hue and her eyes were a dull yellow. She was wearing old overalls with a orange T-shirt underneath and knee-high socks with brown boots and a straw colored sun hat with a orange bow, her ponytails hung loosely under her sunhat, looking smushed and about to come undone, she had neither of her bows in her hair, just her signature black hair pins.

Ciritine got up, stretching, but when she stepped into the light, her pale gray-yellow color didn't fade, it only seemed to get worse. Steven decided to check it out.

"Ciritine!" Steven called, she rushed over, stopping a few feet from him, and backing up a few more inches form the young kid. "Are you alright you look...Gray.." Steven said, in a low voice so the others wouldn't worry, Garnet was setting up the barbecue, Amethyst was doing her thing somewhere in the house (But probably eating most of the raw hamburger meat) Pearl was tidying up the beach and setting up the volley ball net. Ciritine laughed nervously.

"Probably the lighting or something, Earth is a few thousand...hundred thousand? Kilometers from the sun and its afternoon ha ha, probably that, yeah see ya!" Ciritine lied, and just as ever, she was terrible at it.

"Are you sick?" Steven said after a moment as she was backing away, Ciritines facade fell and a frown appeared on her face, her eyebrows twitching in discomfort and she sweated nervously.

"W-well..." Ciritine began, but before she could answer the guests arrived.

* * *

Pearl had just finished up and realized Amethyst was still setting up tables and chairs and offered to help, she purple gem agreed, rather hastily however. They had all gotten into their beach outfits as Steven instructed and saw that the fish stew pizza family was here, just in time.

Garnet set down platters of hamburgers and Moonstone, appearing out of nowhere, had brung fries.

Each gem, and human had settled down and were eating their hamburgers, but in silence for the most part.

"Wow these cam out good~!" Kiki applauded.

"You've barely touched your food!" Nanefua, the old woman said in her foreign accent, it was easy to descifer her from her family accent wise, but appearance wise could prove to be difficult when her daughters grew up, but that was just how the woman predicted it.

"We don't need to eat." Garnet replied in a monotone voice.

"Oh young people these days..." The old woman said in a playful voice.

"Do you all live in that tiny house?" Kofi criticized, but by now Ciritine wasn't listening, she felt too...awful. She didn't know why though, all of her memories were a mess since she got here with Moonstone, she could hardly remember anything and anything she did was really hazy, or were from years and years ago, recent ones were hardly memorable. She didn't want to worry Moonstone though, despite hardly knowing the gem anymore, who knew someone could change so much in that amount of time...How much had she forgotten?

* * *

 _"Steven!"_ Steven looked up, his mind was nothing but a haze, he remembered...Not much really, they were at the Beach party with the fish stew pizza family and...Then what...? Steven decided to fully open his eyes and scan the area. The place was a mess and he looked to where everyone was, there was the gem monster from earlier that had attacked Ciritine and made this mess in the first place! But...Someone else was here, he looked to his left to see a petrified Connie there.

"C-Connie?!" Steven cried, she glanced over to him, she smiled in relief.

"Aha...You're okay..." Connie said relived, she was speaking slowly and in deep breaths, which broke her words up.

"Why are you here?!" Steven asked, but before she could answer a spike came hurling at her, Steven pushed her to the side, activating his bubble. "Just stay put, then you can explain this to me later okay?" Steven asked, Connie nodded, despite being completely and totally scared for her life. Steven lowered the bubble and stepped out, hiding her beside the temple and the small home.

The gems were having trouble with the monster and Ciritine and Moonstone were no where to be seen on the beach. Steven called for Lion and the pink feline was there within seconds.

"Lion I know this is a weird question, but I need a sword!" Steven instructed, the Lion didn't waste a second, getting into a bowing stance almost and lowering its head, its pink mane glowed until reaching a lgiht white hue and looked as though it was being forced against high wind speeds, a pink hilt appeared and Steven hastily grabbed hold of it, yanking the pink sword out, his mothers sword.

Steven ran towards the monster and charged forward with the sword in hand, it turned to him, sucking in a deep breath, and pulling him in, Steven realized too late that the sword wasn't gonna help him much here.

Just as he thought he was going to be sucked in a firm hand clasped his arm, tugging him back. Steven turned, "Connie!" He cried.

"I'm saving you a lot today huh!" She said cheerfully. "C'mon follow my lead!" The two grabbed a hold of the sword while the monster turned to the three gems all attacking it from the other side, paying no attention to the two kids.

"Forehand!" They both shouted, cutting the monster and leaving a huge gaping gash along its side, and before it completely turned around they shouted, "Backhand!" Another seeping deep gash.

"Overhand- _Death strike~!"_ And the monster widened its eyes before the sword and itself made contact, bursting into tons of clouds.

"Just like tennis practice." Connie whispered before falling onto the sand, giggling. Steven picked her up, grinning too.

Garnet bubbled the gem and the team all gathered together, Connie following behind Steven with a guilty look. The fish stew pizza family had all gone home once they saw the monster. "That was a brave- but fairly stupid idea." Garnet scolded. The two fidgeted guiltily. "But, you saved the day." She said with a smile, and ruffled the twos almost identical hair, but Steven stopped to think for a moment where Moonstone and Ciritine had gone off too...

* * *

"That was crazy." Connie said as she laid down on the sofa, Steven sat down next to her.

"Yup." He said with a grin.

"But, it was still really fun." She grinned.

"I didn't know you took tennis!" Steven lied. "No wait, the better thing would be, I didn't think tennis was so awesome!" Steven said, stars in his eyes.

"Well the last one I made up." She said humbly, but they both knew fully well that fact.

"It's still awesome!" Steven insisted. The two talked for what seemed like an hour or two before Connie admitted to needing to go home twenty minutes ago, and was driven home quickly. After about another hour Moonstone and Ciritine came home, both clearly exhausted, but Steven didn't question it.

But, eventually he would. And he wouldn't like the answer very much.

* * *

 _ **So, sorta cliffhanger, but more so one that's going to be dealt with in the future, but near future, but still future, so that means not next chapter, or the chapter after that, but soon after those two. So look forward to them! Because next is gonna be a whole other topic.**_


	24. Rose's Room

_**To the reviewer who said that Ciritine and Moonstone were confusing characters, I just want to point out that this story plot probably isn't possible without them, no rude attitude intended if that's what your getting but...I've already had these characters set in stone for a while for this story ^^ also thanks to all of you who have been so civil about the ZonnenKrager incident ^-^ anyway enjoy!**_

 _ **ANOTHER EDIT!: I know I've been having a lot to update to the authors note and it's getting long, but I want to explain my train of thought for this series, I've been looking at several things for inspiration, but really anything I PM or reply to you guys for is not set in stone, anything I end up typing to reply to you guys is never really "Absolute" until actually typed down and written. NOW, TO THE STORY!**_

* * *

"So, Steven." Pearl began, "How did you know how to A, Open the door to Rose's room, B, Get Rose's sword out of Lions mane, and C, just about everything else you knew how to solve instantly, like with the red eye and Rose's cannon." Pearl continued. Amethyst rolled her eyes in a sluggish manner.

"Of course she'd only remember the parts about Rose's stuff." Amethyst muttered, Pearl shot her a glare, making Amethyst roll her eyes again, Garnet stepped in between them.

"Not now." Garnet said in a orderly and commanding voice. The two gems nodded, they all were behind the counter with Steven Moonstone, and a sluggish Ciritine using the arm rest to prop herself up, she could hardly sit upwards, and her skin was getting paler, but at least it wasn't as grey as it had been.

Moonstone shot Ciritine a sad look and then spoke up, "I hope you do not think it was our fault." Moonstone said with a glare towards the fusion.

"Actually we suspect you." Garnet said with a odd look that couldn't be determined with the shades covering her eyes.

"Why! It's not our fault we came here it was under orders, and why would we want to-" Moonstone was cut off at Ciritine tugging at her dress with her hand, she looked up with golden eyes that were way too innocent, they looked like they belonged to a three year old.

"Moonstone it's not their fault they suspect us I mean with the given circumstances..." Ciritine trailed off, letting her head and arm droop low and she closed her eyes and seemingly passed out on the armrest mid sentence, the steady rise and fall of her chest relieved Moonstone after a moment of silence and motionlessness.

Everyone noticed the absence of Stevens comments and how quiet he was being. It was unsettling.

"Steven are you going to answer us?" Pearl asked, Steven shook his head, wanting to cry so badly. He couldn't put them under that much pressure...He couldn't...He wouldn't...

"STEVEN." Shouted a normally calm and relaxed Amethyst, she was now angry. "You have to tell us." Amethyst dared. Steven flinched, her voice was so...What was the word...Demanding? Steven gulped, he didn't know what to do.

He sat there. Not blinking. Not moving. Eventually after a moment more he snapped. He let out a cry, running to where ever his feet would carry him.

* * *

After what seemed like seconds of running he realized he wasn't standing on solid ground anymore, instead pink clouds.

"What should I do room? I want to know the answer!" He cried in a last ditch attempt to find out the solution. A jumble of clouds appeared before him, he awaited to know what the clouds would show.

A slideshow of images played before him, there were two panels, one that said, _"Before"_ The other said, _"Again"_ He was pretty sure this referred to before when he didn't know what was going to happen, and after he went through all the events again.

First event was when Sadie told Steven about the cookie cats, he was so confused then, just being thrown in time or something, it was shocking.

The next was a series of events, all flashing by, the Centipeedle battle, the Sea Spire, ect. no wonder the gems were so concerned, he had been acting different and didn't even realize it! But how was this the answer? He pouted, sad that he had learned no information after all.

Steven sighed, he wondered how long it would be till the gems gave up, he figured it'd be a really long time, but they should know anything he hides from them he does to protect them! Shouldn't they? He honestly didn't know. He didn't know anything right now, he still was confused about everything, until he was sure about everything he couldn't tell the gems. Even if they could help their daily lives would be ruined before it began.

And the only way to do that was to investigate himself, if he could figure out everything that's going to happen and why, and why he was sent back in the first place then he could go back and he wouldn't have to tell them! But he _really_ wanted to. He couldn't do this alone, but that's why it was fortunate that Moonstone and Ciritine came, maybe they even knew something, but how was he going to get their attention without the gems trying to stop him? He'd have to wait, that's all he could do, and hope for the best when he came out- wait. Maybe he didn't have to.

"Room! I want to see outside, the _real_ outside, but don't let the others see me!" Steven commanded, and after a moment of silence a fury of clouds bubbled up and revealed a simple tinted window, just high enough for him to see outside.

It was darkly tinted, like what you'd see on a car when you're not in it, except lighter and the dark actually helped him a bit, each detail was highlighted to stand out from the dark, well each detail he needed to see, that was a nice handicap.

The window had a side scroll option that showed him different areas of the house, beach, and even some views of the temple, but from high perspective, he guessed inside the temple it'd be easier to see the window, just like in this room. So he concluded that no one outside the temple could see the window, only people in the temple, but it was still hard to notice there too, and only he could see it clearly, possibly only in his mothers room.

Satisfied with his observation he scanned the living room, empty? Where had they gone, he scrolled the window until it revealed the beach, gone too, next his bedroom loft, nothing, temple, empty, everything was just gone except the furniture and the room itself, it was completely vacant of people. He tore his gaze from the window and began to pace, going over possible places in his head.

In the end though, he couldn't think of anything, he sighed, ' _Well, at least it's the perfect time to start investigating...'_ He thought. He arose from his spot on the _"ground"_ and opened his mouth to speak- but quickly shut it when he heard something.

A soft, _pop_ in the distance. It came from underneath the room.

"Room I want to go to the basement!" He cried.

* * *

 _ **And finally I finished this chapter, I don't know why this took me so long honestly, it took a lot longer than I expected at least, but at least I ended up finishing it before I put it off again, because trust me, if I hadn't finished it now I would have put it off for a week and never get back to it.**_


	25. Coach Steven

_**I just know this is gonna be really hard to write. I have a few ideas of how I want this to go...Just...I don't know this episode was always just a sorta 'meh' to me.**_

 _ **Edit: After rereading this I realize just how bad I wrote this...Except I don't really wanna rewrite this...Ugh...I regret ever doing this fic xD why do people even read this...**_

* * *

The three gems hauled Moonstone and Ciritine off to the Communication hub, set on their mission, they couldn't get Steven to come out and they had to get this taken care of first, Pearl rubbed her temple in aggravation as they stopped for yet another break.

"Why do you two need to take breaks so much anyways?" Amethyst said, Pearl rolled her eyes.

"Oh like you're much better." Pearl said, she was currently balancing on a rock to pass the time, and Amethyst was currently kicking said rock. Garnet was simply laying back on a tree trunk, deep in thought. Moonstone was gasping by a river and Ciritine was halfway in the said river.

"Get out of the water." Moonstone said with a scolding voice, similar to Pearls, Ciritine obeyed, but fell onto her knees soon after, Moonstone rubbed her shoulder, noticing how pale Ciritine was. A sympathetic gaze had turned to a scornful one to no one in particular, but was directed at the pudgy short gem who had just split the rock Pearl was balancing on in half. Pearl glared at the purple gem who had just fallen over laughing. Moonstones glare slowly softened into a mournful one.

 _'I wonder where my family is?'_ Moonstone thought to herself, recalling all the years it had been since she'd seen them, and it pained her to know this.

* * *

After many, many, _many_ short breaks they arrived at the communication hub; or in other words their destination.

"We just need to destroy this communication hub and then we can go back." Pearl said. Amethyst groaned.

"So then why did these two need to come along?" Amethyst shot a glance and a accusing finger at the two gems in the back. The two turned their attention to the directed finger that was pointed at them. The two groaned in unison.

"What did we do this time?" Moonstone said for Ciritine who had opened her mouth to speak, the orange gem winced and shut her mouth instantly.

"Nothing, it's just you have no reason to be here right?" Amethyst replied. Moonstone and Ciritine both nodded in unison, Pearl sighed.

"Because, we can't have these two running around the house, especially with only Steven, one they could hurt him if he comes out, and two even if he was strong enough to handle them if he never comes out of his room then who knows what havoc they'd cause." Pearl said with aggravation in her voice, why she was so stressed no one had a clue.

"Like we'd do anything to him!" Ciritine yelled, there was a strained tone to her voice and she immediately backed down form her stance Moonstone winced at how pained Ciritine sounded, and noticed a flicker of dark purple in her eyes for a moment while Pearl turned away from them.

"Like I'd trust _you_." Pearl cried harshly, Ciritine grit her teeth, but stayed silent for the remainder of the time until Pearl spoke up moments later.

"Garnet, we need a precise and well thought out plan to destroy this thing." Pearl claimed, which she thought sounded rather illogical out loud.

"We don't need a plan, or to be careful, we just need to be _huge._ " Garnet said with a grin and turned to Amethyst. "Amethyst-" But the red gem was instantly cut off.

"We'll do it." Said a soft quiet voice, they all turned to the speaker and the purple gem didn't move a millimeter when they did. "I said we'll fuse to destroy the thing." Moonstone repeated.

* * *

Ciritine was shocked into silence, what was the gem thinking!? She couldn't fuse in her stance, but just before she could say anything Moonstone shot her a glare that was one Ciritine knew better then to mess with the wearer of such facial expression.

Moonstone got up, helping the yellow gem up as well, backing away from her, she smirked as they stayed in silence for a moment, a soft breeze had picked up and Moonstone took that as her cue.

Ciritine looked away from Moonstone, avoiding her gaze, she knew what she was doing. She was certain, Moonstone knew that Ciritine was in pain and chose to endure it with the yellow gem, unable to bear her in pain any longer. It pained Ciritine any more to find out this knowledge. Moonstone would go to such lengths, Ciritine knew that well, but even so she knew that no matter how much it hurt Ciritine to let Moonstone do this, Moonstone would be hurt even more if the gem ran away. So she let the purple gem come closer.

Ciritine took a firm grip of Moonstones hand, ignoring the singing heat that radiated from her, Ciritine knew it was just her though, she was freezing, she could feel it, and compared to anyone else they were on fire, if she touched them she knew it would hurt, but endured it anyways. She knew better than to do otherwise.

As Moonstone smirked Ciritine smile back, hoping Moonstone wouldn't catch the pained look that showed in her eyes, she felt the singeing heat get closer and her vision turn white slowly and steadily, until her vision was clouded and she blacked out.

* * *

The heat and cold mixed perfectly, taking only moments for them to fuse together into their fused forms, Moonstone and Ciritine both at the same tine whited out in unison, just like always, they were in this together, no matter how much the other argued that they didn't want to be.

* * *

 _ **Well that marks the end of this chapter! You guys have to wait till' next chapter to find out Moonstone and Ciritines fused form! Hopefully next chapter anyway. I still don't know if I'm going to type Steven or Moonstone and Ciritines p.o.v.'s next, of course not first person, still third person, just from where they are. (AND UGH THIS WAS SUCH A SHORT CHAPTER WITH NO REAL CONTENT OF THE EPISODE! BUT I'M TRYING TO SPEED THINGS UP SO YOU GUYS DON'T HAVE TO SIT THROUGH SO MUCH BORING CONTENT!)**_


	26. Joking Victim

_**Alright I've decided to make this a Steven chapter! Enjoy~! Also Manga154 I used your O.C. in this chapter, although I changed a few things in it, I made the monster look less human and made the regular form look the same, and decided not to use the gem ship yard, that was more of a optional thing just in case, sorry if I disappointed you on that, also to everyone else reading this the first part is really confusing, but you'll find out whats happening! I swear! Also I'm so sorry about cutting down your O.C.'s name, "Smoky Quartz" Just doesn't seem like a normal name, similar to how the gems never fully said "Rose Quartz" And often just called her "Rose".**_

* * *

Steven slid down the meta pole, and held onto it tightly before realizing how easy it was, he let go of the rail, just barely upright and yelled, "Woo hoo~!" As he used gravity to propel himself off of it and spun in the air, doing a back flip whist saying, "Triple-five fifty deluxe with no cheese!" Until he realized how close the ground was and before he was able to slow himself down landed on his face.

He looked up, expecting to see a gem monster standing there attempting to attack him, but instead there was a ruby red gem, unlike Ruby it was a shiny red, looking recently polished and was cool, not warm like Ruby. There were tiny splotches of pink on the sides and bottom, but on the front, or at least he guessed it was the front, it was pure red. The gem was perfectly smooth except for the way it rose up like the bottom of a diamond and came to a point, but unlike a diamond the ( _bottom?)_ was smooth and had no signs of rising in a sort of design or anything, it was simply rounded, it reminded him of Pearl, except it wasn't a perfect oval and of course the ( _top?)_ was pointed.

He let the cool gem rest in his hands a bit before setting it down, getting ready to bubble it when it shook, he was stunned. Normally gems would either stay dormant or start glowing and maintain a physical form in seconds, but this one just shook.

He turned it over in his hands and noticed a small crevice in the gemstone, and noticed how when the gem came to a point it spiraled, and then noticed soon after that the "small crevice" was opening up into a large hole, he dropped the gem in shock and fear as a small red head poked out of it, she looked around and sighed.

"I was caught again huh?" Came a voice from behind him, he turned to face the speaker, it was a gray (Or grey) skinned female, she had a long agile looking body, that strangely reminded him of a swimmers build, with a standard dark jumpsuit, that was a light black, or dark gray, it was really the same, but Steven had trouble trying to decide despite that. The unknown gem also had white short cut hair, and when she turned Steven saw a small hole on her lower back where he just could barely identify as a smoky quartz, and guessed all those lessons Pearl had taught him on gems and their culture and what they looked like had really payed off, he knew a smoky quartz when he saw one, Pearl always talked about her tales on homeworld, and it pained him to know that she still admired it despite having gone to war with them, and knowing that Pearl had no idea how much it had changed over the years, she also had several crisscrossed lines creeping up her neck that seemed to pulse, where the red marks were he noticed her skin had turned a bony white, her hair was also very short, just barely making it's way to her neck, it looked similar to a boy's haircut, except it had long locks, just cut short and coming to a point at her neck.

"W-who are you?" Steven asked nervously, he was just about sick of all these new gems. Where did they keep coming from?! Now that he thought about it he looked at all the bubbled gems and wondered why so many gem monsters came here, and from Ciritine it sounded like she'd never seen one, from wherever she came from that is. It was obviously not homeworld. No matter how much she tried to lie and fib that it was.

"Smoky Quartz, I'm just your average spy." She said with a confident voice.

"You're a spy?" He asked, despite wondering why a spy would flat out tell someone they're a spy.

"Well I was about a couple thousand years ago." Smoky Quartz replied, "Oh, right you can just call me Smoky." She said. (Partly because I can't type the "z" button without hurting my middle finger in the process).

"Okay, Smoky, you don't look...you know...corrupted." Steven commented on her appearance.

"Nope, there wasn't much of a problem with that at the war, it was afterwords that the Earth became messed up and gem monsters began to go everywhere, I only became bubbled about a few years after the war once the Crystal gems found out about me being a spy and all." Smoky informed him.

"Y-you mean...They don't just..." The boy was in a state of shock, just a year or two ago he had believed that they had only bubbled corrupted gem monsters because they couldn't be helped and he couldn't let them run free or they'd cause havoc, but knowing that they had bubbled countless innocent gems...

"Ah I see they told you that they only bubbled certain gems am I right?" She asked, but instantly cut him off before he could reply, "Oh right!" She snapped her fingers and the small red gem with the head disappeared. "I was learning how to create illusions." She informed. "But my main ability is camouflage, but it's timed, I can only use it for a short amount of time, and just before I was bubbled I was learning how to create illusions." She finished.

"Well to your first statement, yes, to the rest, wow." Steven simply replied, Smoky smirked.

"Piece of advice," She began, and her smile fell, her eyes changed from a pale gray to a red, but just for a second, "Don't trust them." She said passionately, making sure Steven knew just how serious she was about this. "No matter how well you think you know a person, you're wrong. They will turn on you in a second, it's just how humans and gems are. No matter how special or close you think you are, that doesn't do anything, except make the betrayal hurt worse." She insisted, Steven nodded sadly. She let a reassuring smile reappear onto her face, "'Cause...You never know...I mean you're friends will lie to you, it's inevitable, don't take it so hard, it happens to the best of us, although it's worse in some cases. Boy, trust me, I'm sure they only wanted to protect you, those Crystal gems have many flaws, but they're good gems." Smoky said softly.

"Alright, I trust you."

* * *

 _ **So. Yeah another cliffhanger. This chapter was really not about the actual episode, it was more of a side episode to introduce the O.C. next chapter though will have that, hopefully. (Probably not, I never own up to my claims)**_


	27. AUTHORS NOTE: Uh

_**SO GUESS WHO WAS STUPID AND LEFT LEFTOVER FANFICTIONS ALONE TOO LONG UNTIL THEY EXPIRED! MEEEEEEE! I was trying to update today, since I realized spring break (Which was when I was origonally going to update) was a few weeks farther away than I'd imagines, so I went to my documents and saw that Steven and the Stevens, Monster Buddies, and Indirect Kiss were all missing from my document manager (Likely due to me waiting so long and they expired x-x) But because of this, unless any of you know how to retrieve lost chapters then tell me please, the reason I wasn't updating as I usually do, is because I was working on two other fanfictions, since I'm completely burnt out on writing Steven Universe for right now (maybe for a while at this rate...) I was intent on updating an actual chapter but, IM STUPID AND THAT'S WHY THERE IS NONE. Just brainstorm on your own to try and guess what I'm gonna write next if you honestly want to busy yourselves, most of my fanfic attention will be to the otehr two fanfics since I'm obsessed with the fandoms (As I was for Steven Universe, most of this was just to burn out some of my obsession and move on to other fandoms, which I did) so uh...I guess good luck on the long wait, trust me there are thousands more fanfics you can busy yourselves with until I can finally retreive these chapters and get up to date with my fanfics, SO ENJOY SOME OTHER FANDOMS/ FANFICTIONS SINCE THIS AUTHOR IS TOO STUPID TO UPDATE SOON ENOUGH ;P.**_


	28. Steven and the Stevens

_**Oh my gosh it's gonna suck rewriting this...Oh well! Might as well get it done so I can hopefully go onto the rest! (You might notice a slight change in my writing since before those chapters were made a few months back, but now It's now and my writing I believe has made a drastic change between those many months.) This took a lot less time than I originally thought!**_

 _ **Also there will probably only be one A/N from now one (switching from the top of the fic to the bottom) just for the longer story space. Not much actual Steven and the Stevens in this, just went over from Joking Victim and Coach Steven, though the time thingy will play a part later, this is a time travel fic after all.**_

* * *

"Well, that's a relief." The gem sighed, the lava and warmth around them curled around them, steam was clouding the room, oddly enough. "I was worried you were gonna smash me." She smirked, "So. how are ya' taking this new information?" She asked, the way her face seemed lined with age told the boy she had been in there for a while, it may have been tiredness though, maybe she had been like Amethyst who slept all the time, and began to need the sleep.

"...Surprisingly, it's the least crazy thing that's happened so far." Steven replied, sighing, Smoky tilted her head to the right in confusion, she glanced over to a small opening in the room and started after it, but was tugged back by Steven, "Wait, what will the gems do if they see ANOTHER new gem?! This is getting out of hand..." Steven thought for a moment, before grinning, "Wait duh you can just stay hidden in Lion!" Steven said, the gem obviously didn't need oxygen, no gems did, only he did. Honestly if he was completely truthful, little facts like that kept him in an unfix-able alone space, he'd never be like anyone else...It was...Overwhelming.

"...Lion?" The gem asked, another look of confusion flashed across her features, "I don't this this is gonna work, erm..." Smoky cut herself off. She nervously and anxiously twiddled her thumbs.

"Oh, it's Steven." He answered her unspoken question. By the look on her face he had guessed right on what she had been about to ask. "And Lion is my pet, he has a magic mane that can hide you!" Steven stated happily, seeing the boys' voice flow with joy was foreign to Smoky, being a war veteran meant she was not used to such...Expressiveness.

"Mm...That might actually work, let's do it!" She said, grinning. She hopped up onto the pole above, wordlessly bringing the astonished boy with him, messing up his attire with such force, which made her grin wider. The boy looked up at her with an expression of bewilderment before cowering under her exhilarated glare.

* * *

The fusion, despite mixing together perfectly, was still incredibly awkward, tripping over their own feet, the fusion was...Interesting, with odd colors mixing, yellow and purple clashed together unevenly, their hair was tied up in a single loose ponytail that hung low on their hair, their expression was lazy and tired, but held a fierceness to it. Their weapon was a purple handled and yellow bladed pickax, and was surprisingly deadly as it crushed pillar after pillar, the fierceness become more apparent the more they used their weapon.

The fusion bellowed with little laughs every now and then looking at how pitiful and small everything was below them, it was a feeling of...Power. And it was _wonderful._ Before they knew what was happening the whole area was destroyed, they quickly unfused, looking at the damage.

The whole experience was blurry and clouded as the two gems unfused, Ciritine looked dazed and sick, Moonstone looked bewildered, their eyes were wide to little pupils and their mouth was switching from a crazed grin to a frightened, right frown. Ciritines entire composure looked broken, completely shattered.

"S-s-s-s-sorry!" Ciritine choked out, coughing up...Blood? Moonstone was still unresponsive, shaking violently and hugging herself. "O-our fusion is-" Ciritine had another fit of coughs, "Dangerous, and highly unpredictable!" Ciritine said. She seemed like a frightened cat, different from her fun and sometimes frightening personality. The gems all comforted them awkwardly, still not completely safe-feeling around them.

"That fusion is...Insane." Amethyst said grimly, comforting Ciritine who looked up at her with doe eyes, which Amethyst decided to try and look away from. The poor gem had been...broken, Moonstone was truly something to be feared, a purple aura kept appearing around her, whenever it did she tensed up, struggling to contain it.

The purple gem kept emitting giggles, Ciritine just looked at her with a solemn expression. Moonstone looked at Ciritine with a wild look in her eyes, still laughing lightly, Garnet sighed, not wanting to have to do this, but new the gem seemed off putting, perhaps on the point of corruption...And it was their duty to...Garnet shut off her guilty thoughts and summoned her weapon, taking steps towards Moonstone who just looked up at the stotic gem with wild eyes, her smile not fading, she grinned a bit more as the gem walked ever closer, and just when Garnet pulled back the gauntlet, Ciritine shoved Moonstone away, taking the blow, earning more fits of laughter from the purple gem as the yellow gem sat there, lying on the ground and looked up at Garnet with pitiful eyes, the stotic gem had no time before the poofed the yellow gem, a flurry of yellow smoke and dust collided all around the three.

A yellow gem sat in the debris, cracked. Moonstone smiled devilishly before jumping up, a smile on her face and she ran, faster than the gems could register anything. The world just seemed to hate them huh.

* * *

Smoky looked up from her sleepy expression, she was inside Stevens room, having been in the mane for so long had been boring, she took the time to talk to Steven until the gems got back.

"...Moon...Stone." She murmured, before casting a sideways glance towards where the door would have been, a faraway glint shone in her eyes before she brightened.

"...You know...Moonstone?" Steven asked, astonished.

"Well...Sorta. We were both veterans in the war, we were trained to sense our comrades after all, and it seems one, maybe even another is close by, one is emitting a powerful energy though. Not surprising, that girl had a few screws loose since I met her." Smoky explained.

"She looked calm when I met her..." Steven said.

"Whoa you _met_ her? And you aren't _dead_? Props to you kid." Smoky's mouth was agape. Steven nodded. "That girl is insane, kills everyone and everything that crosses her path, had to even stay from her own team to avoid us getting killed, she had one partner, skittish and shy, though she was fun loving and fierce around Moonstone, and Moonstone was calm around Ciritine, weird. Moonstone was the power, Ciritine was the intelligence, smarts were rare in our group, so it was nice to have Ciritine around when she was." Smoky said, smiling. "I loved the war..." She sighed.


End file.
